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B I B L I C A L

Your Guide to the Practices, Peoples, and Places of Scripture

FIRST-CENTURY JEWISH WEDDINGS


First Church, Antioch
Scrolls, Books and Seals

summer 2015
volume 41 number 4

Eric Geiger
Vice President, Church Resources

G.B. Howell, Jr.


Content Editor
Philip Nation
Director, Adult Ministry Publishing
Faith Whatley
Director, Adult Ministry
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B I B L I C A L

Your Guide to the Practices, Peoples, and Places of Scripture

B I B L I C A L I L L U S T R AT O R
SUMMER 2015

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL/ NORTH


CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART/ RALEIGH (68/0248)

J E W I S H W E D D I N G S I C H U R C H AT A N T I O C H I S C R O L L S A N D S E A L S

UMEROUS TIMES I
have been unpleasantly
surprised at how creative human beings have been
throughout history in developing
ways to hurt, maim, or kill other
humans. Bullets and bombs for
battles. Stones and steel for weapons. Chariots for chasing. Horses.
Cars. Tanks. Ships. Planes. Guns,
guillotines, and grenades. Knives
and nails. Rocks, ropes, and rods.
Arrows and axes. A cross and a crown of thorns. Indeed,
murder and mayhem have helped define much of history.
Although I didnt realize it when planning this issue,
many of the included articles deal with topics related to
death and dying. The most obvious is the article on Cain,
who committed the first murder in human history. Megiddo,
located in north-central Israel, is the location of numerous battles throughout history and the site of the ultimate
battle of good and evilthe Battle of Armageddon. Emperor
Domitian persecuted early Christians. Jonah (eventually)
went to preach to the Assyrians in Nineveh, a people infamous for torturing their enemies. And of course, many died
during Joshuas conquest ofCanaan.
One hundred years ago, many nations were in the throes
of World War I, which was also known as the War to End
All Wars. This war saw a huge shift in military capabilities.
For the last time in history, a successful cavalry charge
was used, by the way, at Beersheba, in what is now southern
Israel. And this war saw the first aerial combat. Looking
back makes me wonder what people will say of our day 100
years from now.
The good news, though, is that battle and bloodshed do
not last forever. Because of the One who carried the cross
and wore the crown of thorns, a day will come when, they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more (Isa.2:4, kjv). And a
further prophecy that Isaiah states promises: For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall
be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace (9:6, kjv). Watching events unfold makes me
cry earnestly, Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly!

FIRST-CENTURY JEWISH WEDDINGS


First Church, Antioch
Scrolls, Books, and Seals

summer 2015
volume 41 number 4

1105

About the Cover:


A funerary vase
dated 255-250 B.C.
depicts a bride
with attendants. A
woman with a tambourine leads the
procession to the
grooms house.
Erotes and Nike
accompany the
group, signifying
the gods protection for both major
transitions in a
womans life, marriage and death.

On a scale of 1-10, this book


receives a rating of 9 camels.

Illustrated Life of Paul, Charles L. Quarles,


B&H Academic; 2014; 300 pages; softback; ISBN: 978-0-8054-9453-2
Book reviews are limited to those the
Illustrator staff feels confident to recommend, based on ease of reading, quality
of content, and doctrinal viewpoint. Each
book is reviewed within the parameters
LifeWays doctrinal guidelines. The 1 to 10
scale reflects overall quality and usefulness.

YES!

OULD PAUL APPROVE


of the accolades Christians
have ascribed to him
throughout history? According to
Quarles, Paul would blush with anger
at the esteem in which Christians
have exalted him (p.268). What
value then does yet another book on
Pauls life provide for twenty-first
centuryreaders?
First, readers benefit from the
research of a fine New Testament
scholar. Quarles is well qualified to
author a book on Pauls life. After
serving as a missionary in Romania,
Quarles served on the faculty of New
Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
and Louisiana College. He currently
serves as professor at Southeastern
Baptist Theological Seminary in
Wake Forest, NorthCarolina.
Second, the book beautifully fulfills
the title Illustrated with the type of
quality photos and maps readers of
Biblical Illustrator expect. Illustrated Life
of Paul serves as a companion volume
to Illustrated Life of Jesus by well-know
pastor-theologian Herschel Hobbs.
The volume contains at least 130photos, artistic portrayals, sculptural busts
of key leaders, maps, and charts illustrating the cities, cultural artifacts, and
everyday life of the firstcentury.

Third, Quarles provides in nine


chapters a narrative-theological discussion of Pauls life from his early years to
his martyrdom. As the author recounts
Pauls life, he provides excellent background information from Jewish,
Greek, and Roman history that assists
the reader in understanding the historical context of Pauls ministry. Quarles
interspersed brief discussions of Pauls
letters highlighting the purposes and
theological themes within his historical
reconstruction. One of the highlights
of the book is the authors proposal of
Pauls life between his first and second
Roman imprisonment. Quarles postulates that after Pauls release from his
first imprisonment, he immediately
traveled to Colossae to visit Philemon;
subsequently journeyed to Spain and
established churches; and journeyed
back West for ministry to Crete,
Achaia, and Macedonia before Roman
authorities arrested him inEphesus.
A final benefit of the book is the
authors ability to communicate
through academic research in a manner winsome and understandable to
Bible study leaders andlaypeople. I
Mark A. Rathel is professor of theology at the Baptist College of Florida
in Graceville, Florida.

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Contents

SUMMER 2015 VOLUME 41 NUMBER 4

DEPARTMENTS
2

BI Lines

BI the Book: Illustrated Life of Paul


By Charles L. Quarles
Book review by Mark A. Rathel

InSites (between pages 66-67)



Patmos

Ships of the Biblical Era
98 Issues Gone BI
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE
22 Joshua: Leader of the Conquest

by Bryan E. Beyer

June 7 // Session 1
94 The Jordan River

by David L. Jenkins

June 14 // Session 2

InSites: Ships of the Biblical Era


July 19 // Session 1

46 The Nicolaitans

by Michael Priest

July 26 // Session 2

InSites: Patmos
July 26 // Session 2

33 Life After the Exile



by T. Van McClain

August 2 // Session 3
6

First Church, Antioch


by Jeff Iorg
August 23 // Session 6

74


Dinners and Feasts in the First


Century
by Dale Geno Robinson
August 30 // Session 1

EXPLORE THE BIBLE

60 Reuben: His Land and His Legacy



by Robert A. Street

July 5 // Session 5

82 Fellowship: A Word Study



by Gary Hardin

June 7 // Session 1

67 Jonah: A Prophet for His Time



by Robert C. Dunston

July 19 // Session 1

27 Children in Johns Letters



by C. Mack Roark

June 14 // Session 2

90

15

4 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

S E E R E L AT E D B I B L E S T U D Y R E S O U R C E S :

www.GospelProject.com www.BibleStudiesForLife.com www.lifeway.com/ExploreTheBible

19 Cain: The First Unrepentant Sinner



by Leon Hyatt, Jr.

June 28 // Session 4

42 First-Century Jewish Weddings



by Sharon H. Gritz

June 21 // Session 3

63 Domitian: Emperor of Rome



by Timothy N. Boyd

July 19 // Session 7

15 Along the Nile



by Daniel P. Caldwell

June 28 // Session 4

78 Elijah and Messianic Expectations



by Steve W. Lemke

July 5 // Session 5

InSites: Patmos
July 19 // Session 7

39 The Church at Philadelphia: Pillars of the Faith



by Timothy Faber

July 26 // Session 8
90 Scrolls, Books & Seals

by E. Randolph Richards

August 9 // Session 10

52 Houses in Jesus Day



by Paul E. Kullman

July 26 // Session 2
30 The Jewish Tradition of Fasting

by Lynn O. Traylor

August 9 // Session 4

56 Megiddo: A Crucial Locale



by Jeff S. Anderson

August 23 // Session 12

67 Jonah: A Prophet for His Time



by Robert C. Dunston

August 9 // Session 4

49 Alpha and Omega



by Bobby Kelly

August 30 // Session 13

85 The Churches of Macedonia



by Rudy Gonzlez

August 23 // Session 6

THE GOSPEL PROJECT

71 Glory: A Hebrew Understanding



by Stephen J. Andrews

August 30 // Session 7

10 Why These 66 Books?



by Terry L. Wilder

June 7 // Session 1

22

74

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

BSFL: Acts 13:1-3

An ioch
FIRST
CHURCH,

BY JEFF IORG

Antioch is a model of facing and solving


problems in real church lifewarts and all.

ISTOCK PHOTO

HE STORY OF THE
church at Antioch is
an inspiring drama.
A healthy first-century
church, Antioch is a model
for the church in the twenty-first
century. The New Testament
provides an extensive biblical
record of the churchs beginning
and early years of growth, along
with examples of how it handled
doctrinal debates, personality conflicts, and practical matters of church
life, Christian devotion, and missionary outreach. Antioch was one of the
most significant churches in history, if
not the most significant church. Why
is such a bold claimpossible?
Antioch was unique because it
was a church of firsts. While many
churches carry labels like First Baptist
or First Methodistthese labels usually refer to chronology, being the first
church of their denomination in an
area. Antioch was that, and so much
more. It was the first church where
several events occurred which have
marked the church for twomillennia.

6 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

In Evangelizing Gentiles
Some preachers, fleeing the persecution resulting from Stephens
martyrdom, arrived in Antioch
(Acts11:1920). They started preaching the gospel among Gentiles. While

Right: The Orontes


River runs through
the modern city of
Antakya, Turkey,
which was Antioch
of Syria in the New
Testament Era.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ LOUVRE/ PARIS (248/21A)

Below: Marble statue of the god of


the Orontes River.
The river flows
through Antioch
of Syria; found
at MagaracikSmandagi; dates to
the 1st cent. A.D.

ISTOCK PHOTO

the gospel had previously reached


a few Gentiles (like the Ethiopian
eunuch, 8:2738), believers had not yet
strongly evangelized non-Jews. The
Jerusalem church had not fulfilled
Jesus mandate to be witnesses in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth(1:8).1
These anonymous preachers at
Antioch, though, broke through the

racial and cultural barriers restricting


the gospel. That they are unnamed in
Scripture is noteworthy. One of the
most important advances in church
history was accomplished by anonymous heroes who were more concerned about spreading the name of
Jesus than being remembered for their
contribution. The Book of Acts names
dozens of individuals, so Luke was not
averse to including personal details.
The omission here is striking and
instructive. God sometimes uses
anonymous leaders to accomplish
His most significantactions.
In Involving Barnabas
When the Jerusalem church learned of
the gospels breakout in Antioch, they
were agitated. Acts15 recounts the
confrontation between the Jerusalem
and Antioch churches over the nature
of the gospel. The crucial question was
this: Must a person become a Jew (evidenced by circumcision) prior to or as

part of his conversion to Christianity?


The Antioch church rejected this as a
requirement for new believers.
The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas
to investigate the movement in Antioch.
While he later developed a reputation as an encourager, in this instance
Barnabas was more of an inquisitor.
He went to Antioch to evaluate what
was happening. He concluded that
the gospel was expanding to include
the Gentiles, apart from circumcision.
Barnabas became the Antioch churchs
advocate and leader. His stature in the
early church was a significant asset in
affirming the gospels expansion, validating the Antioch church, and later
winning the theological conflict over
the nature of salvation(ch.15).
Why is this significant? The
Antioch convictionthe gospel is for
everyone, apart from any human invention or additionis orthodox doctrine
today. Without the successful resolution of this issue, the early churchs
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

growth would have been truncated; and


a multi-cultural, multi-national, multilingual global church would not have
beenpossible.

the southern
Shephelah to Gaza.
Along the way he
met the Ethiopian
and shared with
him the gospel.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8981)

Below: House
at Beit Gurvin
(Maresha). Philip
journeyed on the
road that ran past
Beit Gurvin through

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (25/3/13)

In Engaging Paul
After Barnabas concluded the
Antioch church was legitimate, he
understood it needed to be stabilized
through a capable teaching ministry.
He knew just the man to translate
the gospel from a Jewish perspective
into the Gentile mindset. Barnabas
summoned Paul and added him to
the teaching team, thus marking his
emergence into publicministry.
Paul taught the Antioch church
for a whole year (11:26) and remarkable growth occurredboth numerical
and spiritual. An interesting question
is what was the curriculum? While
the text does not specify an answer, it
might have been embryonic insights
of what later emerged in the Pauline
letters that form much of the New
Testament. Perhaps Paul hammered
out his theology by field-testing his
ideas while teaching at Antioch. If

Inside Church
of St. Peters at
Antioch; many
believe this to be
one of the oldest
Christian churches;
it may have been
in use in the 1st
cent.

so, by embracing Pauls teaching ministry, the Antioch church played an


important role in helping the apostle develop thoughts and theological
understandings that the Holy Spirit
would later inspire Paul to put into
written form, resulting in much of the
NewTestament.
In Using Christians
At Antioch, early believers were first
called Christians. Some speculate
about the nature of this designation.
It may have been a term of derision
to describe people who talked incessantly about the same subjectthe
Christ, the Christ, the Christ! Early

8 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS (5/15/1)

Above: Dating
to the 3rd cent.
B.C., a colossal
Charonian carving
in the mountainside overlooking
Antioch. Ancient
records indicate
the figure was
carved in an

attempt to save
the city below
from a plague
afflicting persons
in the area.
Right: Mosaic at
Antioch depicting
three male magicians.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM/ ANTAKYA, TURKEY (5/15/17)

believers spoke of the Christ in the


market, in the workplace, and in their
homes. Their persistent evangelism
and preoccupation with Jesustalking about Him all the time, everywhereearned them a new nickname. They were the Christ-ones,
orChristians.
This new name underscores the
nature of early Christianity. It was
infectious. The gospel spread by word
of mouth, with many believers gladly
speaking openly and often about Jesus.
Modern believers are often intimidated, unconcerned, or otherwise too distracted with worldly interests to talk
about Jesus with friends and family
members. The nickname the Antioch
believers earned is a reminder about the
true nature of evangelismbeing so
enamored with Jesus that one cannot
help but talk aboutHim.

was a bold action, considering the


tension between these twochurches.
The Jerusalem church had retained
the gospel as a Jewish movement
for years. When the message finally
spread rapidly among the Gentiles
in Antioch, the Jerusalem church
was suspicious of the legitimacy of
both the conversions and the resulting church. The Jerusalem church
had a major confrontation with Paul,
Barnabas, and a delegation from
Antioch over the nature of salvation.
In that context, the Antioch
church demonstrated grace to those
at the Jerusalem churchin spite of
the Jerusalem church being much
larger and more fully developed. The
Antioch believers could have declined
to offer assistance, citing the doctrinal and personal tension between the
churches. But they did not. Instead,
they gave generously and proportionally to feed hungry believers. Human
need trumped churchconflict.

In Relief Offering
Soon after its founding, a prophet
from Jerusalem named Agabus
spoke to the Antioch church. Part
of his message was about a famine
coming to Jerusalem. In all likelihood, Agabus may have even asked
the Antioch church for assistance.
Regardless, upon hearing the news,
believers at Antioch gave money to
help those suffering (11:2729). This

In Dispatching Missionaries
Paul and Barnabas were commissioned as the first missionary team
intentionally sent out by a church
(13:13). The preachers who started
the Antioch church were fleeing persecution, not extending themselves
as missionaries. Antioch was the first
church to select a missionary team,
pray for them, commission them,
and provide their financial support.

Much of the second half of Acts is the


record of the missionaries work. The
Antioch church is the mother church
of the modern missionary movement,
establishing a new paradigm for how
churches extend themselves to found
new congregations in newplaces.
In a Forced Termination
Paul and Barnabas ended their missionary partnership after a conflict
over John Mark (15:3641). This conflict
was intense (v.39), spilled over into the
Antioch church2 (vv.3940), and took a
long time to resolve (2Tim.4:11). The
good news is that the sides involved
did find an amicable solution. Antioch
is a model of facing and solving problems in real church lifewarts andall.
Many church practices today are
rooted in the church at Antioch. It
wasand isa model church for ministry in any time and place. The firsts
at Antioch reveal the paradigm-changing nature of this remarkable group
of early believers. They changed their
world and are still shaping ours by providing a timeless model of ministerial
effectiveness and missionaladvance. I
1. Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB).
2. David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 448-49.

Jeff Iorg is president of Golden Gate


Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill
Valley, California.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

TGP: Psalm 119:1-16

WHY THESE

66
BOOKS?

10 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

BY TERRY L. WILDER

BOOKS: ISTOCK PHOTO

TORAH: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ LOUISE KOHL SMITH (32/25/2)

HE WORD CANON
(Hebrew: qaneh; Greek:
kanon) originally meant
measuring reed, but eventually
developed the meaning standard.
Pertaining to the Bible evangelical
Christians use, the term refers to
those books the church accepted as the standard that governs
Christian belief andconduct.1
The Old Testament Canon
Unfortunately no clear record
exists to show exactly how the
Jews decided which books to
include in their canon of Scripture.
Josephus, the first-century Jewish
historian, does offer, though, in
his book Contra Apion (1:37-42; ca.
a.d.90) some strong indications
about the Jewish canon. Josephus
mentioned some standards that
Jews used to determine the books
of their canon: (1)they chose
books that were not contradictory;
(2)they were written by prophets
or by persons recognized as having
divine authority; (3)they originated through inspiration from
God; and (4)the Jews accepted
them as authoritative material.2
Josephus limited the OT (Old
Testament) to the 22books (he
combined Jeremiah-Lamentations,
Judges-Ruth) currently in the
Hebrewcanon.
Hundreds of OT references
attest to the fact that these books
are from God, using statements
such as: thus says the Lord and
the Lord said. Apocryphal and
pseudepigraphal books, however,
contain no such assertions. Jews
commonly believed that prophetic inspiration had ceased around
200b.c., so that apocryphal works
written later had to revert back
to an earlier time in order to gain
authority for theirworks.3

Important Dates
Determining when the OT books
were collected is difficult. The OT
canon was already established at
least a century before Jesus walked
the earth. The NT (New Testament)
gives evidence of a three-part canon
that was complete in Jesus time (see
Matt.7:12; Luke24:44).4 Moreover,
Josephus mentioned a threefold
division of the OT. Further, the
Jewish Council of Jamnia confirmed these same three parts of the
OT arounda.d.90.
The Old Testament Jesus Used
Our Hebrew OT and its translations are based largely upon the
Masoretic Text. The Masoretes were
Jewish scholars (ca. sixtheighth
centuries a.d.) who preserved the
OT text and added vowels (called
vowel pointing) to consonants to aid
succeeding generations in Hebrew
pronunciation. The Masoretes compiled, collated, and compared earlier manuscripts in order to come
up with a text that they regarded
as the proper Hebrew OT. Their
resultant text is extraordinarily accurate when compared with the Dead
Sea Scrolls written some 9001,000
years earlier. Their canon was composed of 24 books and three divisions: the Law (Genesis; Exodus;
Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy),
the Prophets (Joshua; Judges;
Samuel [1 & 2 Samuel]; Kings [1 &
2 Kings]; Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel;
Hosea through Malachi [known
as the Book of the Twelve]), and
the Writings (Psalms; Proverbs;
Job; Song of Solomon; Ruth;
Lamentations; Ecclesiastes; Esther;

Daniel; EzraNehemiah; Chronicles


[1&2Chronicles]).
Jesus use of Scripture shows He
considered these same books in the
Hebrew Bible as authoritative (see
Matt.5:1720; Luke24:44). He treated
the OT narratives as statements of
fact and frequently used the OT as
the final court of appeal in matters
of faith and conduct. For example,
when the devil tempted Him, Jesus
resisted the temptations by quoting
the OT (Matt.4:4,7,10). Moreover,
He viewed the OT as predictive of
Himself (see John5:39; Luke24:27)
and expressly stated the authority
of the OT and of His own words
(John10:35;Matt.5:1718).
The New Testament Canon
When Jesus apostles were alive and
operating in the first century, no
great need existed for a NT canon to
Below: Torah case
and scroll from
Hebron.

The basic criterion for recognizing books


as being part of the NT is whether they
were considered God-breathed.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

11

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ COURTESY FERRINI AND BIONDI (29/23/2)

Right: Parchment
leaf from the
Latin Psalter,
dated about 12001210. The text is
Psalm36:1-4.
Below: Sea coast
at Alexandria,
Egypt.

ISTOCK PHOTO

Bottom right: In
northern Italy, the
Trento Cathedral,
known locally as
Duomo di San
Vigilio, was the
host church for
the Council of
Trent.

be defined. This fact was because the


apostles were divinely-appointed,
ordained men who had in themselves the authority of the Lord Jesus
(see Matt.10:40; 1Cor.9:13).5 They
were Gods authority between the
time of the Lords ascension and the
completion of the NT Scriptures,
which would then become the final
and continuing authority. As long
as the apostles and their immediate
disciples were alive, people could
easily determine what constituted
apostolicteaching.
As time wore on, however, certain
developments prompted the need
12 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

for defining the NT canon. First,


the rise of certain heresies occasioned the need for defining the NT
canon. When heretics began to publish their views and establish canons themselves, the true followers
of Christ necessarily had to refute
them by defining what the whole
church regarded as sacred Scripture.6
Second, during times of intermittent Roman persecution,7 Christians
were subject to imprisonment and
even death if they possessed any of
the Christian Scriptures. The possibility of imprisonment or death
made it imperative for believers to

know which books the church recognized as being a part of Gods


Word and which were corollary
or supplemental works.8 Third, as
the second century wore on, the
apostles oral teaching was becoming less familiar to believers, and the
apostles disciples were beginning
to die. Thus, Christians were being
separated further from the apostles
authoritative teaching. This meant
Christians placed less reliance on
the apostles oral teaching and more
dependence on their writings. Thus,
the need arose to define the canon
of Scripture so that later generations
might know what apostolic doctrine
was and wasnot.9
The basic criterion for recognizing books as being part of the NT
is whether they were considered
God-breathed (Greek: theopneustos,
2Tim.3:16; 2Pet.1:2021). Books do
not become inspired because they
are recognized as being canonical;
rather, they are recognized as being
canonical because they are inspired
by God. Thus, the church did not
produce thecanon.
Three principal criteria emerged
which the early church used in
recognizing books that were Godinspired and thus canonical: (1)apostolic origin, (2)recognition by the
churches, and (3)apostolic content.10
Books recognized as canonical had
to be related in some way to the
divinely-appointed, authoritative,
Holy Spirit-inspired apostles.11 With
the criterion of apostolic origin, the
early Christians essentially asked,
Is this particular work under question the work of one of the apostles,
or was it produced under the supervision of and with the stamp of
approval of one of the apostles?
The criterion of recognition by the
churches asked how the earliest leading churches regarded the book.12 If
the churches at Ephesus, Jerusalem,
Antioch, Rome, and Carthage, for

WHY THE ROMAN CATHOLICS CANON IS


DIFFERENT FROM THE PROTESTANTS

he Roman Catholics canon contains more than the 66


books of Genesis through Revelation. They added works
(known as the Apocrypha) like the Wisdom of Solomon,
Ecclesiasticus, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and others. These books likely
originated from Jewish traditions or folklore concerning the biblical text during the Second Temple period (c.300b.c.a.d.100).13
After OT revelation ceased, some Jews perhaps desired more revelatory material.14 These non-canonical scrolls might have been stored
with canonical ones, and over time some distinctions between
themdissolved.15
Two factors contributed to the Apocryphas inclusion in the
Roman Catholic canon: (1)The church father Jerome later included
the Apocrypha in the Latin Vulgate, which was for years the standard
translation for Roman Catholicism; and (2)in response to Martin
Luther and the Protestant reformation, the Roman Catholic Council
of Trent (a.d.1546) recognized the authority of the apocryphalbooks.
The Hebrew OT canon the Jews and early Christians used, however, excluded the Apocrypha. Apocryphal books were never recognized in the Hebrew Scriptures (though some were included in some
fourth-century manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint). Also, their
content differs significantly from the OT books. Moreover, they
were not recognized in the NT. Further, Jesus Christ never cited or
acknowledged any of theApocrypha.

ISTOCK PHOTO

example, accepted a book as authoritative, then chances were strong that


the whole church would give it serious consideration for inclusion. The
criterion of the books content asked
whether a books content agreed
with the doctrine the apostles taught
orally or wrote when they were still
alive. If anything was contrary to the
apostles actual teaching, it was considered spurious and not the Word
of God. As time wore on, these
distinctions became increasingly difficult to determine; this difficulty
motivated the church to delineate
the genuine NT canon in the earliest
Christiancenturies.
So, all of this led to what was
perhaps the prime criterion for
the NT: Was this book produced
by an apostle or under the auspices
of an apostle, and does it obviously
correspond in doctrine to what the
apostles themselves taught when
they were on earth as Gods divinely
appointedspokesmen?
An example of this criterion at
work is the Gospel of Thomas, a
book that did not attain canonical
status. This writing bears the name
of an apostle, but it is not in accord
with what the apostles taught.
Instead, this forgery represented
the heresy of gnosticism. Though
an apostles name was attached to
the book, its content does not agree
with apostolicdoctrine.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

13

Below: Fragment
from the
Septuagint; the
text is Exodus
26:22-25.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO (35/85/19)

Important Dates
The formal establishment of the NT
canon happened later. In the eastern church it occurred with the 39th
Paschal Letter of Athanasius, the
Bishop of Alexandria, dated a.d.367.
This document was the bishops letter
to the faithful written on the occasion
of Passover. In this letter Athanasius
mentions 27 books that the church
accepted as being the NT. In the western church, the Council of Carthage
met in a.d.397. Part of the councils
work was to publish the names of the
27 NT books that the church held to
be genuine Scripture. By the middleto-late part of the fourth century, the
church evidently had no question about
the 27 books that would comprise the
NT. No really serious question has
risensince.

you all things, and bring to your


remembrance all that I said to you
(John14:2526, writerstranslation).
The prophets of old spoke as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit
(2Pet.1:21, hcsb). Those who penned
the NT wrote in like manner. Their
work is Gods trustworthy, inerrant
Word. The biblical canon of 66books
we possess today is Gods Word and
the result of His sovereign oversight
and provision. It has stood the test
of time as the truecanon.
I

Conclusion
Jesus, while on earth, did not specifically mention writings that would
become what we know as the New
Testament. However, He did seem
to pre-authenticate the NT when
He told His disciples: These things
I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach

1. About A.D. 367, the church father Athanasius was


the first person, to our knowledge, to use the word
canon to refer to the Scriptures; in other words, these
books measure up.
2. As PaulD. Wegner correctly summarizes in Do We
Have the Right Canon? in Steven B. Cowan and Terry
L. Wilder, In Defense of the Bible: A Comprehensive
Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture (Nashville: B&H
Academic, 2013),402.
3. Terry L. Wilder, Pseudonymity, the New Testament,
and Deception (Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
2004), 58. In addition to Josephus Contra Apion1:3742,
the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 11a likewise mentions
the cessation of inspired prophecy: Since the death of
the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
4. This three-part division of the OT was mentioned in
a variety of ways. For example, in Luke 24:44 the refer-

14 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ence to Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms meant


the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. This is because
Moses is connected with the Pentateuch (the Law), and
the Psalms alone were sometimes mentioned to denote
the Writings. Other times, persons from the beginning
of the OT and the end of the OT were mentioned to
signify the entirety of the Hebrew OT, i.e., the Law, the
Prophets, and the Writings. Scripture lists in this article
are representative. Other passages, not listed due to
space, could also apply.
5. F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 11920, 25659; Wilder,
Pseudonymity, 165216.
6. Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament
(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1987),75106.
7. Roman persecution began around A.D. 64 and
occurred intermittently over the course of about three
centuries.
8. Metzger, Canon of the New Testament,106108.
9. Herman N. Ridderbos, Redemptive History and
the New Testament Scriptures, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ:
Presbyterian and Reformed, 1988),1224.
10. Bruce, Canon of Scripture,25569.
11. Ibid., 256-59; Ridderbos, Redemptive History,
1215.
12. Metzger, Canon of the New Testament,25354.
13. Wegner, Do We Have the Right Canon?403.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.

Terry L. Wilder is professor and


Wesley Harrison Chair of New
Testament at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Fort
Worth, Texas.

NILE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ MIKE RUTHERFORD (57/9057)

SCROLL FRAGMENT: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ COURTESY


FERRINI AND BIONDI (29/21/13)

Left: In northern
Africa, the ruins
on Byrsa Hill in

Carthage, Tunisia.
In the background
are the towers of a former
Catholic cathedral.
The Council of
Carthage helped
confirm the New
Testament canon.

TGP: Exodus 2:1-10

by
Daniel P.
CALDWELL

ALONG THE

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

15

N THE VATICAN MUSEUM is an ancient


sculpture symbolizing Egypt and the Nile. The artwork depicts the river as a giant stretched out on his
side. A cornucopia of fruit is in his left arm and ears of
wheat are in his right hand. A sphinx on which the giant
supports himself represents Egypt. The scene is made
livelier by 16 children representing the 16 cubits of water
by which the Nile rises for its annual flood. The base of
the statue is decorated with the Nile landscape, including
a hippopotamus and crocodiles. The whole work is symbolic of the regard in which the Egyptians throughout
history have held the greatriver.

Right: Osiris, whom


the Egyptians of
the Old Kingdom
began to associate with death,
was also the pri-

mary god of the


Nile, which the
Egyptians understood to be the
key to life and
death.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/20/52)

Replica of the
sculpture by
Italian artist
Lorenzo Ottoni
dating to about
A.D. 1690; the
figure represents
the Nile River.

ISTOCK PHOTO

ISTOCK PHOTO

Geography of the Nile


The longest river in the world,
the Nile flows north roughly 4,130
miles from the heart of Africa to
the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptian
Nile (the northern-most portion) is
formed by the union of two rivers. The first is the White Nile
which flows out of Lake Victoria in
Tanzania. The second is the Blue
Nile from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
These join at Khartoum (capital of
Sudan) and are later fed by the Atbara
River near Barbar. Thereafter the
Nile flows over 1,500 miles northward

to the Mediterranean without being fed


by any further rivers orstreams.
In ancient times a combination of rapids and waterfalls (cataracts) at varying
points prevented the complete navigation
of the Nile. The first set of cataracts was
at Aswan, which is generally acknowledged as Egypts southernboundary.

Above: A high-elevation view of Tuti


Island, which is
at the confluence

of the White and


Blue Nile rivers in
Khartoum, capital
of Sudan.

fifth
cataract
first
cataract

Aswan

Atbara River

sixth
cataract

Lake
Nasser

Khartoum

fourth
cataract

goshen

Cairo

Alexandria

Ri

ve
r

EGYPT
N
ile

Mediterranean
Sea

elephantine

Barbar

second
cataract

third
cataract

SUDAN

ETHIOPIA

Lake
Tana

Above: The Tis


Abay (translated
Smoking Water)
Falls on the Blue
Nile in Ethiopia.
The falls range
from about 120150 feet wide in
the dryer season
to over 1,300
feet in the rainy
season.

ile
N
e

Below: Lake
Victoria as seen
from the Nile
River. The large
concrete block
marks the beginning of the Nile.

located. Goshen, in the upper northeastern section, was


where Jacob and his descendants settled (Gen.45:10;46:2829).
Livelihood from the Nile
The Nile was the source of Egypts life and agricultural
wealth, an oddity for a region that is primarily arid and
desert. Since rainfall was minimal in Egypt, the Nile
was essential for watering the land by means of flood,
irrigation, andinfiltration.
The annual flooding in the early fall was due to the
runoff from heavy rainfalls in Sudan. The rising of the
Nile during the hot, dry months remained a mystery
to the ancient Egyptians. They developed nilometers,
formed by graduated degrees cut in natural rocks or in
stone walls, to measure the river levels. The flooding also
brought natural fertilizers (silt) to the desertland.1
The Niles flooding was a well-known event amongst
the Hebrews. At times the Old Testament prophets
would use this natural occurrence in judgment contexts concerning the rise and fall of nations (Isa.46:78;

ISTOCK PHOTO

ISTOCK PHOTO

Heading north from Aswan, the Nile flows between


two lines of cliffs. At times the cliffs come directly down
to the rivers edge and in other places are over eight miles
away. Using irrigation, farmers could cultivate the wider
areas of land. Due to the dark color of the rich soil, the
Egyptians called the cultivated areas Black Land. At the
cliff tops were the Libyan and Arabian desert lands where
few Egyptianstraveled.
At Cairo (modern Egypts capital) the Nile begins to
spread out like a fan, the bulk of its waters flowing into two
branches: the Rosetta and the Damietta. The land enclosed
within and lying adjacent to these river channels is known as
the Nile River Delta. This region is the area where the closest links with the ancient Israelites are likely to have been

KENYA
Lake Victoria

Blu

Lake Kyoga

UGANDA

e
hit

le
Ni

TANZANIA
Lake Albert

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

17

Influence on Egyptian Religion


The Nile, so fundamental to the nations well-being, did
not dominate Egypts religious life. Egyptians took their
world largely for granted; they had no name for the Nile
but referred to it simply as river (ior, iotr). The Hebrew
term generally used for the Nile in the Old Testament
is yeor and was most likely borrowed from this Egyptian
term.6 The term Nile is not Egyptian. The ultimate
18 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

1. Edward Mack, Nile in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, gen. ed.
James Orr, (Chicago: Howard-Severance, 1915),4:2146.
2. Ralph H. Alexander, raoy> (yeor, Nile) in Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris (Chicago: Moody, 1980),832; 1:357-58.
3. John Ruffle, Nile River in Holman Bible Dictionary [HBD], gen. ed. Trent C. Butler
(Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991),1024. Ruffle points out that some attribute the
Nile turning to red to a natural occurrence that happens at the peak of the flood season
in August when large numbers of tiny organisms turn the water red and could make it foul
and undrinkable. It would also kill off the fish which would decompose and infest the frogs
(the second plague) leading to successsive plauges of lice, flies, and pestilences. God may
have used such natural conditions with His timing to plague Egypt.
4. For interpretations of this passage, see J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy, vol. 5
in Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press,
2008),5:171; and John D. W. Watts, Deuteronomy in The Broadman Bible Commentary,
vol. 2 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1970),234.
5. Mack, Nile,4:2146.
6. Alexander, raoy>, 832; 1:357-58.
7. C. E. DeVries, Nile in The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, gen. ed.
Merrill C. Tenney (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976),4:437-38.
8. John D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
1997, 241.
9. Jacobus Van Dijk, Myth and Mythmaking in Ancient Egypt: The Myth of Osiris in
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. in chief Jack Sasson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
Publishers, 2000), 1702-1706; William S. LaSor, Nile in The International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia, gen. ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 536-37.

Daniel P. Caldwell is professor of religion and dean of


the Cooper School of Missions and Biblical Studies,
William Carey University, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

BACKGROUND IMAGE: ISTOCK PHOTO

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (17/11/10)

Jer.46:78; Amos8:8) and the diminishing of Egypts


strength (Isa.19:1-15).2 Significantly, the first plague
affected the Nile, which turned to blood. This would
have rendered the waters filthy and unsuitable todrink.3
In addition to the flooding, farmers depended on irrigation for water. Workers cut channels from the river to the
fields and used small earthen dams to control the flow.
Moses mentioned this practice in Deuteronomy11:10 as a
lesson for the Hebrews. Just as they depended on the Nile
while in Egypt, they were to depend upon God to provide
rain for them in their newland.4
Ancient Egyptians correctly understood that all of
their water was from the Nile. The Nile Valleys porous
soil allowed water to penetrate the ground on either side
of the river, a process known as infiltration. As a result,
people dug wells for drinking water and for irrigation in
the dry season.5
Due to the Nile providing water year around, the
Egyptians were able to produce bountiful harvests. The
Hebrews mentioned some of these while wandering in
the wilderness. In 1 of the 10 times they tested God
(Num.14:22), the Hebrews wanted more than manna to eat.
They mentioned the good foods of Egypt: cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic, and fishfish that people may
have caught in the Nile or the canals flowing out ofit(11:5).
Jacob earlier knew of Egypts abundance as he sent his
sons there to purchase grain (Gen.42:12). The effects of
the flooding, constant irrigation, and depositing of silt over
the years enabled Egypt ultimately to become the granary
of the biblicalworld.
The Nile facilitated transportation. The current helped
boats traveling north; the prevailing wind guided those heading south. The cataracts may have provided some protection
from enemy invaders approaching from thesouth.

SIFTING: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TERRY EDDINGER (35/43/52)

On Elephantine
Island, this
Nilometer indicates the water
level of the river.

origin and the meaning of the name Nile are unknown


(Gr. Neilo; Lat.Nilus).7
The Egyptians had gods, though, that they associated
with the Nile. They believed that bringer of water and fertility was not the river but its annual flooding, called Hapy
(also spelled Hapi), who became one of the Egyptians
gods. Although Hapy was an image of abundance, he was
not a major deity in the Egyptian pantheon. Depicted as a
fat figure, Hapy bought water and produce in abundance
to both gods and humans. Although Hapy had no temple,
Egyptians presented sacrifices and sang hymns to him as
they acknowledged the beginning of the annualfloods.8
The major god most closely connected with the Nile was
Osiris. In myth Osiris was a king of Egypt; his brother, Seth,
killed him on the river bank. His body was cut into 14 pieces,
placed in a coffin, and cast into the Nile. His sister-wife,
Isis, later reassembled his body; and he became king of the
underworld. According to some Egyptian thought, the Nile
River receding in the autumn and overflowing in the spring
represented the annual death and rebirth of Osiris.9 This
constant cycle would lead the Egyptians to accept the possibility of immortality. The faithful follower of Osiris hoped
to overcome death just as this godhaddone.
Because the ancient Egyptians depended on the river so
much, the contributions of the Nile to their life, culture,
and religion cannot be overemphasized. But the contributions were not to Egypt alone. From the reeds of its waters,
an infant was drawn out (Ex.2:10) and became Gods faithful servant, Moses. This was perhaps the Niles greatest
contribution to those who worshipYahweh.
I

ETB: 1 John 3:7-19

Below: Man sifting grain. Cains


offering to the
Lord was produce
that he had grown
himself.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

19

20 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

First Murderer
When Cain did
not repent and
change his attitude,
his sins multiplied.
His wrong attitude toward
God expanded into a wrong attitude
toward his brother. Cain spoke to
Abel, evidently in anger, and may
have even blamed his brother for his
predicament.7 Cains resentment
grew until, catching Abel in the
field alone, he attacked and killed
his brother (Gen.4:8). First John
3:12 confirms that Cains murder of
his brother grew out of his previous
wrong relationship withGod.
God still did not respond to Cain
in anger and punishment (vv. 9-15).
Instead, He asked Cain where his
brother was, giving him an opportunity to confess and be forgiven.
Cain did not confess but denied

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/7/82)

First Insincere Worshiper


The first action Scripture describes
Cain performing was to worship
God. Cain and his brother Abel
came together to present offerings
to God (Gen. 4:3-5). The name of
their offerings came from a Hebrew
word meaning tribute.5 Cain and
Abel were giving tribute to God in
recognition that all of their possessions belonged to Him. Many years
later, when Yahweh gave Moses
instructions about the offerings, one
of the five offerings He described had
that same name (Lev.2:116). God
explained that the tribute offering
was to consist of grainwhole or
ground, raw or cooked. It usually
accompanied the Hebrews gifts to
God from the first produce of their
harvest or the first-born of their herds
or flocks and was hence called the
offering of firstfruits. Cain and Abel
brought to God a simpler form of that
same offering to acknowledge that
their produce was entrusted to them
by Godsgoodness.
When the first sons laid their offerings before God, the Lord accepted

Abel and his tribute offering but


rejected Cain and his tribute offering.
Many claim the problem with Cains
offering was that he did not offer
a blood offering. That suggestion
almost surely is not accurate, because
God later taught Moses that tribute
offerings were to be made of grain.
Genesis4:3-4 reveals the defect was
Cain presented some of the lands
produce, while Abel presented the
firstborn of his flock and their fat portions (hcsb, emphasis added). Abel
brought God his best. Cain did not.
Cains inferior offering revealed an
inferior respect for God and a lack of
genuine gratitude.6 Hebrews11:4 supports that explanation; it says Abels
faith led him to offer a more excellent sacrifice than Cain (kjv). Cains
inadequate offering to God reflected
his inadequate faithinHim.
Cains response to God rejecting
his offering was to go about
with his head bowed down
in anger and resentment.
Yahweh did not strike
down Cain for being angry.
Instead, He explained to
Cain he could obtain His
favor by doing the right
thing, that is, by presenting the right kind
of offering in the right
attitude. He added, if Cain
refused to worship in the
right way, sin was crouching at his door, ready to
pounce on him. The Lord
urged Cain to rule over
that sin by resistingit.

Above: Bronze
axe head from Ur.
Tubal-cain, who
was one of Cains
descendants, was
the first recorded
in Scripture to
make metal tools
(Gen. 4:22).
Left: Painted
ceramic plaque
depicting musicians; found at
Uruk in southern
Mesopotamia, a
possible site for
the city of Enoch,
which Cain built.
The lady on the
left plays a small
drum and the man
on the right, a
flute.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/15/17)

IRST JOHN3:12 identifies


Cain as of the evil one and
says he killed his brother
because his evil works made him jealous of his brothers righteous works.
Two other New Testament texts mention Cain, Hebrews11:4 and Jude11;
the Jude passage lists him with others
in the Old Testament who rebelled
against God. Ancient extra-biblical
writings, such as those of Josephus,1
The Apocalypse of Abraham,2 The
Life of Adam and Eve,3 and PseudoPhilo,4 either agree that Cain was
evil or add questionable, sometimes
fanciful, details. The only reliable
information about Cains sinfulness
outside the New Testament is in
Genesis4:324.

Right: Ivory
panel from the
Cathedral of
Salerno in Italy
depicts God
choosing Abels
offering over
Cains, Cain killing
Abel, and God
confronting Cain.
Panel dates to
about A.D. 1084.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

By Leon Hyatt, Jr.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (7/23/17)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ GRECO-ROMAN MUSEUM/ ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (17/24/2)

Egyptian flutes
made from bone
and lyre from Ur
decorated with a
bulls head. One
of Cains descen-

knowing anything about where


Abel was. God told Cain He knew
all about what had happened and
said the result was going to be Cains
fields would no longer be fertile and
productive. Sadly, Cain continued
to resent and criticize God. He said
his punishment was too harsh; others would hate him and kill him.
When God judged Adam and Eve,
they submitted and repented. By
contrast, Cain continued to resist.
God was gracious once more and
put a mark on Cain to warn everyone who saw him they would be
punished seven-fold if they took
vengeance on Cain. Refusing to see
Gods mercy in the way the Lord
was dealing with him, Cain hardened his heart even more. He moved
away from the rest of Adams family into the land of Nod. His move

dants was Jubal,


the father of all
who play the lyre
and the flute
(Gen. 4:21, HCSB),
which many biblical

scholars take to
mean that he was
responsible for
the development
of early musical
instruments.

expressed his determination to reject


Gods word and go his ownway.
First Kingdom Builder
Living in the land of Nod, Cain
sought to avoid fulfilling Gods
warning that he would be a wanderer
in the earth. He built the worlds first
city and named it after his first son,
Enoch (vv. 16-17). No doubt, that
first city was modest in comparison
with later cities, but building a city
was evidence that Cain and his family were helping populate the earth
sufficiently to constitute a whole
city. In those early days, sin had not
yet severely weakened the fiber of
humanity, so people lived much longer (6:3). Many surpassed 900years.
They had plenty of time to reproduce and populate a small city while
Adam and Eve still werealive.

In Cains city his family got busy


using the talents God gave them to
advance their way of life. In the seventh generation, Cains descendants
had progressed enough that one brother became the first nomadic rancher,
another the first inventor of musical
instruments, and a third was the first
smith to work with different kinds
of metals (4:20-22). Unfortunately,
at the same time they also greatly
expanded their sinfulness and rebellion. Lamech, the father of those
three inventive brothers, was the first
polygamist. Further, he bragged to his
wives about killing a young man who
offended him and dared anyone to
criticize himforit (vv.23-24).
Cains example led his family to
build a civilization without God, and
they were spiraling downward toward
the monstrous tragedy that wiped
out all humanity except one family,
a tragedy that evidently engulfed the
world during the lifetimes of Lamech
and his three inventive sons. Cain is
a dramatic example of the harsh reality that unchecked sin grows, spreads,
and ultimatelydestroys.
I
1. Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews1.2.12 in The
Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans.
William Whiston (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers,
1987),31.
2. R. Rubinkiewicz, trans., The Apocalypse of
Abraham in James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol.1 (New York: Doubleday,
1983), ch.24, vv.45 (p.701).
3. M.D. Johnson, trans., Life of Adam and Eve in
Ibid., vol. 2 (1985), 26467.
4. D.
J. Harrington, trans., Pseudo-Philo in Ibid.,
vol.2, ch. 2, vv. 13 (p.305); ch.16, v.2, (pp. 32324).
5. hx'n>mi (mincha; tribute) in Francis Brown, S.
R.
Driver, and Charles A Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon
of the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1996), 585. English versions of the Bible all
copy each other in failing to communicate the distinctive
meaning of the name of tribute-offerings. They hide
the significance of the brothers worship experience by
substituting the generic term offering in Genesis4:45.
6. Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 111:26, vol. 1A in
The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman
and Holman, 1996),267-68.
7. James G. Murphy, A Commentary on the Book of
Genesis in Barnes Notes on the Bible (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1985), 153.

Leon Hyatt, Jr. is a retired Louisiana


Baptist pastor and missions director,
living in Pineville, Louisiana.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

21

BSFL: Book of Joshua

Joshua had served Moses faithfully, but


many perhaps wondered whether Joshua
could lead as well as Moses had.

J SHUA

ISTOCK PHOTO

LEADER OF THE CONQUEST

22 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

By Bryan E. Beyer

OSHUA SON OF NUN


played a significant role
in Gods purpose for Israel.
Under his leadership, the Israelites
conquered Canaan and divided it
among the tribes. However, we
know little about the background
of the man God used somightily.
Joshua, the Man
Joshuas name means Yahweh has
saved or Yahweh is salvation. His
name is thus related to the names
Isaiah and Hosea, and the name
Joshua was Jesus Hebrew name as
well. (See the allusion to Jesus bringing salvation in
Matt.1:21.) The Pentateuch describes him only as Joshua,
son of Nun or merely as Joshua. Joshua hailed from the
tribe of Ephraim (Num.13:8,16), and 1Chronicles7:20-27
provides more names from his family background, but
yields little additionalinformation.
Joshuas Life Before the Conquest
The Bible first mentions Joshua in Exodus17 after the
Israelites had left Egypt. The people warred against the
Amalekites, a nomadic group in the region, and Joshua
led Israel against them and defeated them (Ex.17:914).
The Book of Exodus also places Joshua with Moses at
Mount Sinai when Moses was receiving Gods commandments (24:1213; 32:17). After his experience at
Sinai, Joshua also appeared at Moses side after Moses
Left: A Jewish
rabbi blowing
the shofar. God
instructed the
children of Israel
to march around
the city of Jericho
once a day for
six days. On the
seventh day, they

were to circle the


city seven times.
Then the priests
were to blow their
shofars and the
city wall would fall.
Below: Mound
that is the site of
the ancient city

of Jericho; in the
background is
the Jordan River
Valley. Jericho
was the first city
Joshua and the
Israelites conquered as they
came into the
promised land.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (17/34/8)

Above: Area of
the Wadi Feiran,
which is west
of Mount Sinai
and the site of
the Sinais largest oasis. Wadi
Feiran was known

in Scripture as
Rephidim and
was the home of
the Amalekites.
Joshua led the
Israelites in a
battle against
the Amalekites at

Rephidim. As long
as Moses arms
were uplifted, the
Israelites were
successful in the
battle. Hur and
Aaron helped hold
up Moses arms.

spoke with God face-to-face at the tent of meeting


(33:11). Clearly God was already preparing Joshua for
futureleadership.
Joshua also served as one of the 12 men Moses sent
to spy out Canaan (Num.13:8,16). When the spies
returned from their mission, 10 gave the people a bad
report about the land (vv.3133). They did not believe
that God, who had brought them so far, could give
them the promised land (Heb.3:19). Only Joshua
and Caleb stood firm in their conviction that God
would help Israel take the land despite the challenges
(Num.14:69). The unbelieving generation received
Gods judgment and wandered in the wilderness
for 40years until all those who were 20years of age
and older died (vv.28-35). Joshua and Caleb lived on
because of the faith they had shown in Gods promise. One can only imagine their pain as they waited
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (50/4372)

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

23

an additional 40years to receive their inheritance


(Num.14:30;Josh.14:7,10).
Joshuas Work
Most of what we know about Joshuas life and work
comes from the book that bears his name.1 God
earlier had designated Joshua as Moses successor
(Num.27:1823); and before Moses died, the Lord recommissioned Joshua (Deut.31:14,23). God did not
allow Moses to enter the promised land due to his sin
at Meribah (Num.20:1113).
Joshua had served Moses faithfully, but many perhaps wondered whether Joshua could lead as well as
Moses had. The Book of Joshua highlights the steps
God took to ensure Israel saw His hand on His new
leader.2 First, God appeared to Joshua after Moses
death, reassured Joshua of his mission, and promised
to be with Joshua wherever he went (Josh.1:19).
Second, God parted the waters of the Jordan for
Joshua, just as He had parted the waters of the sea for
Moses (3:717; cf.Ex.14:1522). The Israelites certainly
would have made this connection in their minds.
Third, the Lord appeared to Joshua through a heavenly
messenger (Josh.5:1315). God instructed Joshua to
remove his sandals, just as He had instructed Moses
at the burning bush(Ex.3:5).

Joshuas work essentially involved two purposes:


conquer the land of Canaan and allot it to Israels
tribes. The conquest of Canaan included three major
campaigns: a central campaign, a southern campaign, and a northern campaign.3 These campaigns
lasted approximately five to six years altogether
(Josh.14:7,10); and as they concluded, Israel had
achieved effective control of Canaan, though some
groups of people remained in the land(13:27).4
The central campaign began with the famous battle
of Jericho, in which God caused the city wall to collapse so Israels army could take the city (6:1221).
After a temporary setback at Ai due to Achans sin
(7:126), the Israelites took Ai and Bethel (8:129). The
Gibeonites, who lived in a major city on Canaans
central plateau, acted deceitfully and secured a covenant with Joshua and Israels leaders, who failed to
consult the Lord on this important matter (9:316).
Nonetheless, this treaty meant Joshua had achieved
control of the central plateau without a fight, and in
doing so, had effectively cut the land in half, isolating
northern and southernCanaan.
A southern coalition of kings recognized the threat
Joshua posed and moved quickly to attack Gibeon
(10:15). Joshua responded with a surprise attack at
dawn after marching through the night to the edge of
the plateau (v.9). During the battle,
God caused the sun to stand still all
day.5 Joshua and his army routed
the coalition and then extended the
battle southward, conquering the
major cities and towns(10:1643).

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (19/7/18)

Left: Gate at Hazor,


which was the largest city in northern
Canaan. Hazors
King Jabin rallied
the northern cities
to oppose Joshua.
The Israelites,
though, were successful; they killed
the Canaanite leaders and burned the
city of Hazor.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/21/11)

24 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Below: Valley of
Aijalon; when battling the Amorites
here, Joshua
asked God for a
miracle. The Lord
lengthened the
day, allowing the
Israelites to defeat
their enemies
(Josh. 10:12-14).

Weaponry
&Armor
LATE BRONZE AGE

(15501200 B.C.)

1
2

7
About 40,000
[Israelites]
equipped for war
crossed to the
plains of Jericho
in the LORDs
presence (Josh.
4:13, HCSB). These
objects give us

an idea about the


military equipment
the Israelites may
have used.

2. Bronze quiver
fragment from
Urartu. The relief
illustrates the
tree of life
flanked by priests.

1. Bronze arrowhead; from Tel Dan;


Late Bronze Age
3. Hittite sickle
(15501200 B.C.).
sword.

To the north, Jabin, king of Hazor, assembled


another coalition of kings to face Joshua (11:15). God
again gave Joshua success as Israels army defeated
the coalition and then pressed the battle throughout
the northern territorys cities and towns (vv.723).
Israel had achieved effective control of the promised
land(12:124).
The task now remained for Joshua to lead Israel in
allocating the land (chs.1321). Individual tribes would
assume responsibility for removing the remaining
people groups (13:17). Joshua, accompanied by Eleazar

4. Bronze dagger,
with no handle,
and sword dating from the Late
Bronze Age II
(14001200 B.C.).
5. Bronze Hittite
helmet from Urartu.

6. Duck bill axe


head.
7. Chisel-axe head.
1. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID
ROGERS/ JEWISH MUSEUM/ NEW
YORK (355/20A)
2. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ UNIVERSITY MUSEUM/ UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (292/12)
3. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES

MCLEMORE/ ISTANBUL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM (10/34/15)


4. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID
ROGERS/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON
(551/15)
5. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID
ROGERS/ ADANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM/ ADANA, TURKEY (245/28A)
6. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ
(35/43/32)
7. ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ
(35/43/30)

the priest and Israels elders, oversaw the division of


the land (14:1). Fittingly, Caleb, who along with Joshua
had believed Gods promise (Num.14:69,30), received
the first recorded allotment (Josh.14:614).
The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had
received Moses and Joshuas blessing to settle east of
the Jordan (Num.32:2930; Josh.1:1215). Joshua and
Israels leaders then allotted territory to the tribes of
Judah (15:163) and Ephraim (16:110); Manasseh also
received territory in Canaan because it was a large
tribe(17:118).
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

25

Left: Part of the


western gate at
Lachish, looking
toward the outside

of the city. In the


conquest, Lachish
was allotted to the
tribe of Judah.

land to help Israel achieve victory.


Third, he was a man of faith. He
persevered for 45years as he awaited the fulfillment of Gods promise
(14:7,10).6 He also expressed his
faith publicly on many occasions
and led the Israelites in renewing
their faith pledge to God (3:56;
6:16; 8:3035;chs.2324).
All leaders have weaknesses.
Joshuas failure to consult the Lord
on the treaty with the Gibeonites
resulted in some questioning his
leadership (9:18). Why Joshua
failed to consult the Lord on such
an important matter is unclear.
Joshua also may have demonstrated
a momentary lack of faith when he
wondered why God had not helped Israel at the battle
against Ai (7:79). All in all, however, Joshua followed
the Lordfaithfully.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS (4/6/11)

Joshua then gathered all of the people to Shiloh,


where the Levites set up the tabernacle (18:1). Joshua
sent delegates throughout the land to survey it, after
which he distributed the land to the remaining tribes
by lot (18:410). The leaders also gave Joshua a portion
within Ephraim (19:4950). Joshua designated 6cities
of refuge (20:19) and 48cities (including the cities
of refuge) as Levitical cities so the Levites could live
among the people and instruct them in Gods ways
(21:142). Joshuas actions fulfilled Moses instructions
and highlighted the continuation of Gods purpose for
His people (20:2;21:2).
Joshuas final speeches reveal his spiritual commitment (chs. 2324). In the first, Joshua encouraged the
people to remain faithful; God had given them the land,
and He would continue to help them settle it (23:35). If
they trusted in God, He would bring blessing; if they
turned from Him, He would bring judgment (vv.1416).
In the second speech, Joshua surveyed Israels history,
beginning with Abraham down to the conquest. He
called on Gods people to affirm the covenant and to
commit themselves totally to the Lord(24:115).
Joshuas Strengths and Weaknesses
The Lord gave Joshua many strengths. First, he was a
good leader; the people saw Gods hand on him and followed him. Second, he was a good general. He remembered the land well from when he surveyed it as one
of Israels 12spies, and he used his knowledge of the
26 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Joshuas Legacy
Israel served God faithfully throughout Joshuas days
and during the period of the elders who survived him
(24:31). Joshua led Israel in renewing the covenant during the conquest (8:3035); and at the end of his life,
he again reminded Gods people that their future lay
in faithful obedience to God and His commandments
(24:2527).7 Joshuas legacy even has touched many
Christian families today, who have Joshuas famous
words adorning their homes: As for me and my family,
we will worship Yahweh (24:15,hcsb).
I
1. See Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer, Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian
Survey, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008),16779.
2. David M. Howard, Jr., Joshua, vol.5 in The New American Commentary (Nashville:
Broadman & Holman, 1998),62.
3. Arnold and Beyer, Encountering the Old Testament,17276.
4. Donald H. Madvig, Joshua in The Expositors Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Frank
E. Gaebelein, vol.3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992),311.
5. Arnold and Beyer, Encountering the Old Testament,174.
6. The time periods referred to in vv. 7 and 10 give us an insight into the period
of time covered by most of the Book of Joshua. Israel was sentenced to forty years of
wandering in the wilderness after the spies came back with their report (Num 14:33-34).
Verse 10 shows that forty-five years had elapsed since the time of this sentence, so the
conquest to date had occupied some five years.... From Howard, Joshua,329.
7. Ibid.,44546.

Bryan E. Beyer is associate provost and dean of


the College of Arts and Sciences at Columbia
International University, Columbia, South Carolina.

ETB: Letters of John

Children
IN JOHNS LETTERS

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ MIKE RUTHERFORD (57/0263)

Egyptian children
playing marbles.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

27

28 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Right: Dated to
about 2477 B.C.,
a terra-cotta figurine of children
playing leap
frog. Egyptians
buried figurines
depicting servants
and scenes of everyday life to ensure
the deceased would
have assistance
and could
enjoy the
afterlife.

only once in Paul and three times in


Hebrews.3 A different word for children, though, was evidently even
more important to John as he wrote
hisletters.
Significantly, John chose the language of family when addressing his
recipients, as did Paul. Where Paul,
though, typically used the word
brothers, viewing his readers in a
sibling relationship, John, viewing
his readers in a parent-child relationship, used a Greek term unique to
his writings in the New Testament,
little children (Greek, teknion). It
is the diminutive form of the word
for children (teknon).4 Both Greek
words are built from a verb meaning give birth to or beget. The
Gospels of Matthew and Luke used
the verb, for instance, for the births
of John the Baptist and Jesus. An

examination of Johns use of these


two related terms, children and
little children, gives a strong hint
of how he thought of his readers.
TeknonWhen John spoke about
his readers (not to them), they were
Gods children (teknon), begotten of God (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7;
5:1,4,18; also 3:1,2,10; 5:2). Although
elsewhere the New Testament
describes Christians as Gods children, with God as their Father, only
in John do we see this expression
begotten of God. John wanted to
make clear that the believer shares
Gods nature.5
TeknionIn contrast, when John
spoke to his readers, not about them,
they were teknion, little children, a
term of direct address. This indicated
that John considered his readers to be
his spiritual childreneven if he had
not led them to faith in Christ himself.6 As mentioned above, teknion
is the diminutive form of the word
teknon. Diminutives, then and now,
often refer not to size, but rather
express affection, familiarity, closeness, or endearment, not unlike our
use of Daddy for Dad, Mommy for
Mom, Bobby for Bob, Suzy for Sue.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL/ ORIENTAL MUSEUM/ CHICAGO (67/5261)

HAT CAN WE
know about the relationship between
John the apostle and those who read
his three letters? From a reading of
these epistles, we can know something of the issues John addressed,
but how did he regard the readers?
Within the letters is a clue to that
relationship and to its meaning for
both writer and reader. The clue is
in the words John chose to address
and identify hisreaders.
One can learn much about the
relationship between correspondents
by reading their letters and noticing
the way they address one another,
from the formal Dear Sir to the
personal DearestOne. John could
have called his readers Christians,
but the New Testament never uses
the word Christian as a term of
address.1 New Testament writers
used several other significant words
for addressing the recipients of their
letters, each for distinctive reasons:
brothers, saints, believers,
beloved, friends, and in Johns
letters little children. John had
at his disposal the language of the
classroom (disciples), the language
of friendship (friends, beloved), and
the language of religion (saints). In
fact, some of these terms John did
use. For instance, he used beloved
10 times (1John2:7; 3:2,21; 4:1,7,11;
3John1,2,5,11). He used brother
18times in his epistles, but only once
as a term of address (1John3:13).
This may have been because of
the clustering of the word brother in verses1017, where 8of the
15occurrences of the word in the
letter are located.2 Twice John spoke
of young men (1John2:13,14).
Additionally, two times (vv.14,18)
he used a Greek word for children (paidion) that occurs often in
the Synoptic Gospels, but elsewhere

Right: Located
4 miles from
Jerusalem, the village of Ein Karem
was the hometown
of Elizabeth and
Zachariah. Shown
is a lady kneeling
at the altar in the
Church of John the
Baptist where John
was supposedly
born.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/0891)

By C. Mack Roark

he called them dear children


(John13:33). The remaining seven
occurrences are in 1John (2:1,12,28;
3:7,18; 4:4; 5:21). John made clear
that he was speaking to them as a
loving parent to his own children,
dear to him.8 This sounds much
like Paul, who, although he did not
use the diminutive, spoke of the
Corinthians as my dear children
and of himself as having fathered
them in Christ (1 Cor. 4:1415).
Johns referring to his readers as
his dear children speaks volumes
Beginning of the
prologue of the
Book of John
from the Martyrs
Bible. The Bible
belonged to
Richard Hunne and
was in his possession when he was
martyred in 1514
for his support of
an English Bible.

Right: Ceramic
vase in the form
of a woman and
child; dated from
Egypts 18th
Dynasty, 14501400 B.C.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB
HOWELL/ MUSEUM OF FINE
ARTS/ BOSTON (64/2614)

ILILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/BOB SCHATZ/COURTESY FERRINI AND BIONDI (29/22/13)

Most translators of the New


Testament used the term little children to render teknion, but those
who used dear children may have
been closer to what John was saying.7 This word takes the reader beyond friendship or brotherly
affection to the intimate relationship of parent and child. This term
occurs only eight times in the New
Testament, and all are in Johns
writings. For instance, John records
in his Gospel, how, as Jesus prepared His disciples for His absence,

about his closeness to them and the


intent of his letter. He wrote not
simply as a pastor, or as a friend,
or even as a brother in Christ, but
as a parent, a spiritual parent with
the responsibilities and concerns
any parent has. This is especially
significant when we notice that the
ethic of love permeates the letters;
it is the dominant ethic.9 The call
and command to love has an even
greater force when seen through
this perspective (see 1John3:1018;
4:712,1621). Similarly the warnings about sin (1:8; 2:12; 3:410),
the warnings about false doctrine
(2:1828; 4:16), the assurance of
forgiveness (1:9; 2:12), and the
assurance of salvation (5:13) are
more compelling and authoritative coming from a loving father
to his dear children.
I
1. The word Christian appears only three times
in the New Testament; it is never as a term of address:
Acts11:26; 26:28; 1Peter4:16.
2. The word for sister occurs once (2 John 13)
where it likely refers to a church, as elect lady probably
does in 2John1. See Hans-Josef Klauck, Ancient Letters
and the New Testament (Waco: Baylor Univ. Press,
2006),2930.
3. See 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 2:13,14;
11:23. Concerning the Greek term paidion, 43 of its 52
occurrences are in Matthew, Mark or Luke. Johns Gospel
has this word at 4:49; 16:21; 21:5.
4. Interestingly, only in Galatians 4:19 does Paul use
the term children to address his readers directly,
probably because he then immediately spoke of being
in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you
(HCSB).
5. In 2John1,4, and 13, John used children apparently to refer to church members; and in 3 John 4 he
used the term to refer to his own converts or disciples.
6. Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John, vol.30
in The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1982),214.
7. Little children: KJV, RSV, NASB, HCSB;
children: GNT, Phillips; dear children: NIV.
8. For an interesting, if apocryphal,
account of John as father figure to his disciples, see Clement of Alexandria, The Rich
Mans Salvation 42; Eusebiuss Ecclesiastical
HistoryII.23.619 repeats thestory.
9. The language of lovenoun, verb, or adjectiveoccurs 62 times in the letters.

C. Mack Roark is the


Ruth Dickinson professor of Bible at
Oklahoma Baptist
University, retired,
Shawnee, Oklahoma.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

29

TGP: Isaiah 58:6-7; Joel 2:12; Jonah 3:5-8; Matthew 6:16-18

Fasting
THE JEWISH TRADITION OF

BY LYNN O. TRAYLOR

ONG BEFORE ITS MODERN POPULARITY


as a method of dieting or improving ones sense
of wellbeing, fasting was a common practice for
many primitive peoples. Reasons and motivations for
fasting varied. Some ancient cultures fasted out of a
desire to show a penitent spirit, to prepare for a community rite or special occasions, for personal purification, or to establish an altered physical state inducing a hoped-for dream or vision.1 Because it
involved both personal and community dimensions, some form or practice of fasting was
part of every major religion. In fact, in some
cultures, fasting predated the development
of a formalreligion.2
ILLUSTRATOR

PHOTO/ BRE

NT BRUCE

30 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Biblical examples of fasting appear in two main


forms. Individuals fasted, usually prompted by extreme
desire or distress; and communities or nations fasted to
mark significant events orcrises.
Individual Fasts
From the viewpoint of pagan cultures, individual fasting
referred to a persons refusal to eat or drink, motivated by
a desire to earn a special merit. It is not starvation due to
a scarcity of food, but a voluntary act of abstaining from
food (and/or drink) in order to demonstrate or
achieve a personal purity or strength.3
Biblical examples of individual fasting,
however, almost always involve
an encounter with the divine;
such fasting is a persons
whole-body, natural response

Bottom left:
Communal fasting
included wearing
sackcloth.
Right: Locusts.
Local communities
could call for a fast
when facing dire
circumstances such
as pestilence, a
lack of rainfall, or
other calamities.
Below: In
Jerusalem, the
annual celebration
of Purim, which
commemorates
God using Esther
to rescue the Jews.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ MICAH KANDROS (35/93/2)

ISTOCK PHOTO

to lifes sacred moments (emphasis


mine).4 Such a fast first appears in Moses
experience at Mount Sinai. While receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses was
there with the Lord 40days and 40nights;
he did not eat bread or drink water
(Ex.34:28).5 Although the text does not use
the Hebrew word for fast (tsuwmliterally meaning to cover the mouth),6 the passage nonetheless describes a fast experience.
Moses later repeated the experience as he pleaded
on Israels behalf: I did not eat bread or drink water
because of all the sin you committed(Deut.9:18).
Individuals also fasted during times of anguish
and hurt too deep for words alone to express.7 Such

fasts illustrated the affliction of the body (Hebrew


innah nefesh literally, afflict the body, which is also
translated fast) that a person felt.8 Individual fasting also can: show expressions of humility, as when
King Ahab of Israel humbled himself before God
(1Kings21:27); reflect a deep grief, as when Nehemiah
mourned Jerusalems condition (Neh.1:4); or accompany a desire for divine direction, as when Daniel sought
understanding (Dan.9:3). This type of fasting hardly
ever occurs apart from prayer;9 the individual feels
so overwhelmed and thus gives up food in order to
make an entreaty to God, as King David who pleaded
with God over the life of his son (2Sam.12:1623).10
Intense individual fasts could leave a person weak
kneed and emaciated (Ps.109:24).
Communal Fasts
As was the case with individual fasting, communal (or
national) fasts marked significant moments or times
of crisis, as when the people of Nineveh heeded Jonahs
warnings and entered into a national fast (Jonah3:58).
The Talmud (a record of rabbinic teachings) shows
communal fasts were not always nationwide; elders
of any local community could call for a fast when the
locals faced dire circumstances such as pestilence, a
lack of rainfall, or other calamities.11
Nationwide communal fasts followed a set calendar
of fast days, which either the Torah decreed (such as
the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the month
of Tishri; Lev.16:2931; 23:2732), or that became part
of the calendar of ritual fasting commemorating significant, historical events. For instance, the Ninth of
Av marked the destruction of the Jerusalem temple
(Jer.52:1213); the Seventeenth of Tammuz mourned
the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem (39:2); the Tenth
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

31

of Tevet marked the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem


(2Kings25:12; Ezek.24:12); the Third of Tishri
commemorated the death of Gedaliah (Jer.41:12;
2Kings25:25); and the Fast of Esther recalled the
queen fasting before she entered King Ahasueruss
presence and intervened for the Jews (Esth.4:16). Of
these ancient communal fasts, the ones related to the
Day of Atonement and the temples destruction (the
Ninth of Av) remain the most observed; the others
have little following in modern Judaism.12
Communal fasts were also spontaneous in nature,
as when mourning for a fallen leader as in the death
of Saul (1Sam.31:13; 2Sam.1:12; 1Chron.10:12), or
celebrating deliverance from catastrophe (Esth.9:31).
Israels fast prior to doing battle with the tribe of
the Philistines
slew King Saul
and his sons and
hung their bodies
on the walls of
Beth-shan, the men
of Jabesh-gilead
marched all night
in order to retrieve
the bodies and

bury them here.


Bottom: Column
bases with pedestals from the
Temple Mount area
in Jerusalem, dating to the period
of Herods Temple
(20 B.C.A.D. 70).

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KEN TOUCHTON (1/8/19)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8021)

Below: Hilltop rising in the distance


is Jabesh-gilead.
Saul delivered the
people of Jabeshgilead from the
Ammonites. The
people never forgot the kings kindness. Thus when

Benjamin (Judg.20:26) suggests communal fasting was


well established as early as the twelfth centuryb.c.13
The method of communal fasts changed little
throughout the observances recorded in the Bible. The
main features of the communal fast ritual included praying openly, confessing ones sins, publicly reading the
Torah, and displaying humility by tearing ones clothes
and wearing sackcloth and ashes (1Kings21:27; Neh.9:1;
Ps.35:13; Isa.58:5; Joel2:13). Ordinary fast days were
from dusk to dawn, but important fasts (such as the Day
of Atonement) lasted for 24hours.14
Given the number of fast days and the practice of
calling for fasts in response to localized crises, the practice of communal fasts evidently grew to an overwhelming number. The Babylonian Talmud specifies when
public fasts must not be ordered to commence.15 As the
frequency of such fasts increased, the sincerity of those
participating in them evidently waned. Old Testament
passages such as Isaiah58:67 and Joel2:1213 voice this
concern. The rabbis acknowledged the sincerity underlying the practice of fasting as being crucial, explaining
that God did not see the sackcloth and fasting of the
people of Nineveh, but saw they were turning away
from their evil path.16 Similarly, Jesus teaching on
fasting did not prohibit fasting; instead He required that
fasting be rooted in a sincere desire to draw closer to
God, apart from selfish motivations(Matt.6:1618). I

32 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

1. David Lambert, Fasting as a Penitential Rite: A Biblical Phenomenon? Harvard


Theological Review96, no.4 (October 2003):477.
2. Eric N. Rogers, Fasting: The Phenomenon of Self-Denial (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
1976),27.
3. Ibid.,3132.
4. Scot McKnight, Fasting (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009),xiv.
5. Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB).
6. Hebrew/Aramaic Dictionary #6684: tsuwm tsoom; a prim. root: to cover over
(the mouth), i.e. to fast. James Strong, The New Strongs Complete Dictionary of Bible
Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996), 498
7. Lambert, Fasting as a Penitential Rite, 480.
8. Jewish Holidays: Fasting & Fast Days, Jewish Virtual Library [online; accessed
16 July 2014]. Available from the Internet: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/
fasting.html.
9. Lambert, Fasting as a Penitential Rite,479.
10. McKnight, Fasting,60. The Old Testament describes two others as not eating during times of personal distress. Upset at her barren condition, Hannah did not eat while at
the tabernacle, which was in Shiloh (1Sam.1:18). And centuries later, Ahab could not eat
after Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to the king (1Kings21:14). Hannahs not eating
may have been a genuinely religious fast, whereas Ahabs actions seem to be merely a
display of royal pouting over not having gotten his way!
11. Tractate Taanit, Chapter 3 (pp. 47-48). Jewish Virtual Library [online; accessed
16 July 2014]. Available from the Internet: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Talmud/
taanit3.html.
12. Jewish Holidays: Fasting & Fast Days.
13. Josiah Derby, Fasting and Atonement, Jewish Bible Quarterly 23, no. 4
(1995):240.
14. Jewish Holidays: Fasting & Fast Days.
15. Tractate Taanit, Chapter2 (p.49).
16. Lambert,Fasting as a Penitential Rite,502.

Lynn O. Traylor is pastor of Buckner Baptist Church,


LaGrange, Kentucky.

BSFL: Nehemiah 1

LIFE AFTER THE

Exile
B Y T. VA N

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ JOSEPH A. CALLAWAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM/ THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY/ LOUISVILLE, KY (13/6/12)

MCCLAIN

A pottery figure
of a foreigner who
came to Judea
while the Jews
were in captivity in Babylon.
Aramaic writing
on the base of the
figure suggests
the individual had
a Mediterranean
background. One
of the problems
the returnees faced
was the reaction
of those who had
inhabited the land
while the Jews
were in captivity.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

33

The Audience
Palace of Cyrus
the Great
at ancient
Pasargadae (in
modern Iran) had
these jambs. This
one has a figure
of a bull-man
and a fish-man.
These figures
may represent
Cyruss religious
toleration. Cyruss
son and successor, Cambyses II
moved the capital
from Pasargadae
to Susa.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO (23/1/2)

FREE AT LAST!
FREE AT LAST!
THANK GOD ALMIGHTY,
WE ARE FREE AT LAST!

HIS SOARING AND


stirring rhetoric concluded
Martin Luther King, Jr.s
I Have a Dream speech of 1963.
Dr. King was looking forward to a
day of freedom that all Americans,
regardless of race, couldexperience.
In 538b.c., the Israelites rejoiced
at their day of freedom from
Babylonian captivity. Their exile
34 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

was over. They could return home


to their beloved Jerusalem. Life in
Babylon had been a struggle. After
the Persians conquered Babylon,
King Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jewish people to return to
Jerusalem. What would they find
upon their arrival? The Babylonians
had destroyed the city and the
temple, and the city walls were in

Right: The Cyrus


Cylinder records
the capture of
Babylon; Mid-late
6th century B.C.
Cuneiform script.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH
MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/11/54)

disrepair. The Jewish people probably dreaded the possibility of their


neighbors harassing and tormenting
them after their return. Perhaps the
returnees found skeletal remains of
ancestors who had not been properly buried after the Babylonian
invasion. One can onlywonder.
Some have wondered if this
return from exile actually happened. An archaeological artifact,
the Cyrus Cylinder, provides corroboration of Cyrus decreeing that
the Jews could return to their
homeland. Persias King CyrusII
reigned 550-530 b.c. and produced
the cylinder chronicling some of
the events of his reign. While the
cylinders text does not mention

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/26/58)

Jerusalem or the Jews by name, it


does indicate that King Cyrus had
a tolerant policy toward conquered
peoples and offered to restore their
religious sanctuaries. According to
the cylinder, King Cyrus made the
following claim regarding holy cities whose sanctuaries had been
in ruins over a long period, the
gods whose abode is in the midst
of them, I returned to their places
and housed them in lasting abodes.
I gathered together all their inhabitants and restored to them their
dwellings.1 This return from exile
actually occurred. Surely the Jews
hearts were filled with joy as they
realized this was a fulfillment of
Jeremiahs prophecy from God to
return the people of Israel to their

promised land after 70 years of


captivity (Jer.29:10; see25:1112).
Of course, their new life was
different from what they experienced under the Davidic kingship.
The Davidic kingship had ended;
in its stead, a governor the Persians
appointed ruled over the Jews.
The returnees had to answer to
their Persian rulers and seek their
approval before beginning any
buildingprojects.
The Jews had the freedom to
reinstitute the worship of Yahweh,
celebrating the appointed feasts and
Sabbaths as the Law commanded;
but had they really learned to refrain
from idolatry? Some Jews did; they
became overzealous of the Law, adding to the Lords commandments,
perhaps with the desire never to
return to idolatry. These were the
forerunners of the Pharisees. In contrast, others intermarried with their
pagan neighbors, probably for financial or political reasons. The wives
from these other nations introduced
foreign deities, and the children
of these unions turned to

idolatry. Whatever lessons the Jews


had learned, each new generation
after the exile seemingly faced similar temptations as had the last, and
each generation failed to meet the
challenge in various ways and had
to relearn the lessons of the previous generation. Yet God was still
gracious tothem.
The Jews returned to their homeland in three waves, and Gods
hand was evident in each one.
Zerubbabel, who was the leader of
the tribe of Judah, led the first wave
in 538b.c. This Zerubbabel was
also a descendant of King David
and of the imprisoned king named
Jehoiachin (Jeconiah).
The returnees found the temple
in ruins, homes devastated, and
Jerusalems walls in shambles. King
Cyrus, who allowed the return, had
commanded the Hebrews Persian
neighbors to give the Jews silver
and gold, with goods and cattle,
together with a freewill offering
for the house of God which is in
Jerusalem (Ezra1:4).2 The Jews
received many gifts as they began
Artists rendering of
a synagogue. The
area on the left was
where the Jewish
congregation gathered for worship.
The adjoining room
is thought to be a
classroom where the
Torah was taught.

Above: Persian
gold daric dated
to about 450 B.C.
Daric comes
from dara,
which means
king. The daric
is one of the few
coins the Old
Testament mentions.
ILL

TO
RA

A
TT
LA

B
T/
AR

ST

U
ILL

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

35

Where to Live
Many of the returnees lived in
Jerusalem. Since farming was the
most common vocation, others
lived in the surrounding country,
close to Jerusalem. The apportionment of property likely was based
on genealogical considerations (as
inheritance of property was based
on tribal affiliation), deeds, or
other documentation of family
ownership that may have been
preserved. Other property assignments would have been based on
the personal recollections of those
old enough to remember their former homes and on the guidance
and decisions Zerubbabel and
his associates made. Of course,
some peoples previous homes
or farms may have been inhabited by those currently residing
in the Jerusalem area. If so, the
returning Jews likely had to find
someplace else tolive.
When
the
Babylonians
destroyed Jerusalem, they took
many of the Jews captive. Some
Jews who remained in the land,
however, later abandoned their
homes and fled to Egypt. Thus,
the homes of many Jews, if not
destroyed, had fallen into disrepair. Restoring all of these homes
was a hugechallenge.
36 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

I will make you like a signet ring,


for I have chosen you (Hag.2:23).
These words may indicate that
Zerubbabel would serve as a type
for theMessiah.
According to 2Kings17:24, the
Assyrians (who had conquered
Israel in 722b.c.) brought in foreigners from Babylon and other areas
to live in the land of Israel. Many
of these people likely settled in the
area of Judea after the Jews were
taken into captivity. The Assyrians
took one of the Jewish priests into
captivity but later returned him to
Bethel, in Israel. In spite of his
presence, idolatry continued among
the inhabitants. They claimed to
worship Yahweh but had a bent
towards idolatry. As a result, they
did not fear God (2Kings17:34).
This mixed group of people would
be called Samaritans. These people opposed the Jews rebuilding
work. Ezras and Nehemiahs later
attempts to lead the Hebrew men
to divorce their pagan wives further
drove a wedge between the Jews and
theirneighbors.
In 458b.c., Ezra led a second group
of Jews back to the land of Israel
under the leading of God and the
blessing of Persias king. Many Jews
in Israel had intermarried with the
pagan people around them and were
practicing idolatry. In response, Ezra
tore his garment and his robe, pulled
some of the hair from his head
and beard, and sat down appalled
(Ezra9:3). Many of the Jews who
also were appalled at their fellowJews disobedience joined Ezra in
his prayer of confession before the
Lord(9:410:1).
The nation was in danger of
reverting to idolatry. Doing so
would mean facing Gods judgment
again. A leader named Shecaniah
proposed a solution for the intermarriage problem; he suggested the
Jewish men divorce their pagan

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (557/33)

their return; Cyrus also returned a


vast amount of temple treasures to
the Jews, articles of gold and silver
numbering 5,400 (1:11). The Jews
came with many supplies in hand,
but not enough for the challenges
ahead. They also had to trust God.
What types of challenges did the
Jewsface?

Handling Conflicts
Immediately upon
returning to Jerusalem
in 538b.c., the Jews
built an altar so they
could resume presenting burnt offerings according to the
Law of Moses. They also celebrated the Feast of Booths. In the second year of their return, workers
laid the foundation of the temple,
amidst great celebration (Ezra3:113).
Then the Jews adversaries hindered
the temple reconstruction by sending letters to the king of Persia, letters that misrepresented the work in
Jerusalem. As a result, about 17years
lapsed before work on the temple
resumed. During this time, the Jews
focused on building their own homes
(Hag.1:24).
Finally, the Lord led the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah to stir up
Gods people to finish rebuilding
the Jerusalem temple (Ezra5:12).
Tattenai was the governor of
Samaria, an area also known as the
Trans-Euphrates. Likely intent on
putting a stop to the rebuilding, he
requested that Persias King Darius
(ruled 522486b.c.) determine if his
predecessor King Cyrus had authorized the rebuilding of the temple
(vv.3-17). When Darius discovered
that Cyrus indeed had issued such
a decree, Tattenais efforts backfired
miserably. The rebuilding effort
continued, funded with tax revenues from Tattenais region. Darius
decreed, Their [the Jews] expenses are to be fully paid out of the
royal treasury, from the revenues of
Trans-euphrates, so that the work
will not stop(6:8, niv).
The Jews finished rebuilding
the temple, called Zerubbabels
Temple, in 516/515b.c. amidst great
rejoicing. God honored Zerubbabel
by declaring,
I will take you,
Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My
servant, declares the Lord, and

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/23/15)

Above: Ruins of
the Samaritan
temple on Mount
Gerizim. The returnees encountered
Samaritans living
in this area who
claimed a loyalty
to Yahweh but who
also worshiped
other gods. A
strong division
developed between
Samaritans and the
Jews who were
loyal to God.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/9381)

Left: Interior of a
reconstructed fourroom house typical
of those found in
ancient Israel.

wives. Shecaniah indicated he and


others would support Ezra in calling the people to make this difficult
decision(10:24).
Ezra led the people to make this
covenant. Intermarriage with foreigners was not forbidden if that
person had come to faith in Yahweh.
The resultant revival of true worship
that Ezra led was exceptionalalbeit

Upper left: From


Sippur, a deed
recording the sale
of a piece of land;
from the Early
Dynastic Period
(mid-3rd millennium
B.C.); the language
is Akkadian.

short-lived. Within a generation of


Ezra, the intermarriage with pagans
and the resulting idolatry would
again be anissue.
Nehemiah returned in the third
wave in 445b.c. with the leading
of God and the kings blessing.
Although he came to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem, he ended up reordering Hebrew society. When he

heard of Jews marrying pagans, his


approach was quite different from
Ezras. Nehemiah13:25 says, So I
contended with them and cursed
them and struck some of them and
pulled out their hair, and made them
swear by God, You shall not give
your daughters to their sons, nor
take of their daughters for your sons
or for yourselves. Ezra had pulled
out his hair; Nehemiah pulled out
theirhair!
Nehemiah led the Jews to completely restore the wall around
Jerusalem, plus he encouraged social
and political reforms, emphasizing a
return to the true faith as taught in
the Old Testament. By no means,
however, were Jewish conflicts with
the Samaritans and other neighbors
resolved. Animosity between Jews
and Samaritans continued for years.
Jewish Government
How would a foreign kings rule
compare with that of a national
king? Before the Babylonian exile,
the Jews had lived under the rule of
their own kings for about 450 years.
The king was accountable to God.
After returning to their homeland,
the Jews lived under the rule of a
governor whom the king of Persia
appointed; the governor answered
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

37

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS (152/12)

Excavations
in Jerusalem
unearthed this base
of a small tower
and a portion of
Nehemiahs wall.

to the king. Evidence of this change


was apparent when the Jews enemies persuaded the Persian king to
halt the Jews work on the temple
for 17years during Zerubbabels governorship. By the grace of God, the
Persian monarch did provide the
Jews a great deal of religious freedom during this time, but the Jews
did not have politicalautonomy.
Changing Religious Practices
One of the greatest changes in Jewish
religious practices during and after
the exile was the growth and prominence of the synagogue. While in
captivity, the Jews were unable to
worship at the temple, so they met
in smaller groups and worshiped
under the leading of rabbis. After
the return, the Jews strayed from
the truth of Gods Word, especially
in the area of interfaith marriages
(Ezra9:14; 10:2,10).
Additionally, the Jews likely
adopted the Aramaic language
as long as they were in Babylon,
although they continued to study
Hebrew. As a result, Hebrew may
have not been the Jews native language after the exile. This is likely
the case since Nehemiah8:23 says
Ezra read to the assembly, all who
38 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

could listen with understanding


and similarly, those who could
understand, and all the people
were attentive. Nehemiah8:8 indicates that the Levites read from the
Law to the people, translating [or
explaining] to give the sense so that
they understood thereading. The
development of the synagogue likely had roots in the pre-exilic period,
but studying the Hebrew language
to better understand Gods Word
had become essential.
Two factors indicate that the
priests likely had greater authority in Israel after the exile: the loss
of a centralized ruler, meaning a
national king and the rise of the
synagogues importance. How did
this play out in the fortunes of the
Jews? The answer to that question all depended on the character
of the priest. Joshua (or Jeshua)
the son of Jehozadak (or Jozadak),
who returned as high priest after
the exile, found favor with God
(Zech.3; 6:914); however, some of
his sons married foreign women
(Ezra10:18). Such priestly misconduct seemed to be rampant, as
both Nehemiah and Malachi had to
address the priests sins (Neh.13:49;
Mal.1:62:9).

The priests loss of respect


for God led to the peoples loss
of respect for Him as well. The
result was that people neglected
tithing (Neh.13:1013; Mal.3:712).
Malachi3:7 indicates this was a perpetual problem; as a result, the land
was under a curse accompanied by a
loss of materialblessings.
Daily Survival
The Jews in Babylon likely had been
involved in every type of commerce
and vocation, so they were prepared to
get to work upon their return. Many
returnees farmed. Some were involved
in commerce and trade. However, the
Israelites faced financial difficulties,
mainly because they were unfaithful
to God. During the time of Haggai in
520b.c., the Jews poverty was due to
the fact they had not rebuilt the temple (Hag.1:511). The Jews neglecting
to give their tithe indicated that their
hearts were far from God.
The Lord graciously called
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi to
confront the people with their sin,
but the peoples returning to God was
often short-lived. Yes, the returning Jews had to pay taxes to their
foreign king, but God promised to
meet all their needs and more if His
people would be faithful to Him.
This was the situation at the end
of the Old Testament Era. As the
Old Testament closed, the question remained: Would Gods people
be faithful toHim?
I
1. Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer, eds., Readings
from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old
Testament Study (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002),
148-49.
2. Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations
are from the New American Standard Version (NASB).

T. Van McClain is professor of Old


Testament and Hebrew and director
of library services at Mid-America
Baptist Theological Seminary,
Northeast Campus, Schenectady,
New York.

Jesus promised the people of the


Philadelphian church that they
would be a pillar in the temple of
My God. This promise both bolstered and rewarded the peoples
steadfastness and determination.

COLUMN BASE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/25/11)

COLUMN CAPITAL: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/0503)

ETB: Revelation 3:7-13

The Churc h at P h i l ad e l p h i a

PILLARS
FAITH
OF THE

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

39

ESUS SPOKE OF THE WISE MAN BUILDING


upon a rock and the foolish man building on the sand
(Matt.7:2427). To many people this principle of
building on a solid foundation would seem to be obvious.
For the church in ancient Philadelphia, which was located
in modern western Turkey, it was both a daily reality and
the principle behind a promise from the LordHimself.
Philadelphia
Founded somewhere between 159 and 138b.c.,1
Philadelphia at the time of Johns writing was a relatively new city, compared to many. Early planners intentionally established Philadelphia as center for the spread
of Greek culture to the northeast;2 Philadelphians were
conscious of and successful in fulfilling thatpurpose.
Unfortunately, geographical conditions impeded the
city planners intentions of spreading Greek culture.
Philadelphia was built upon volcanic rock and was thus
prone to frequent earthquakes. After an earthquake
destroyed the city in a.d.17, few residents remained in
the city. The people rebuilt their homes in the surrounding countryside and came into the city only to conduct
trade and business. The city was rebuilt through the
generous patronage of Tiberius Caesar and took on
the name Neocaesarea. The city also went by Flavia,
Neokoros, and later as Little Athens. Today the city is
calledAlasehir.
In this citythat was lacking an esteemed legacy,
built on shifting igneous rock, and known by several different nameslived a band of believers that
would not be shaken. The symbolism behind Jesus
promise of their being a pillar in the temple of God
(Rev.3:12) would not have been lost on the people of
Philadelphia. They likely saw it as both a compliment
andencouragement.
In modern
Aksephir, Turkey,
excavations of
the St. John
Church at ancient
Philadelphia; the
church dates from
A.D. 600. Of the
seven churches
mentioned in
Revelation,
Philadelphia was
one of only two
to whom the Lord
issued no complaint.

40 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Pillars
Throughout history pillars have served several purposes. The Greek word stulos, translated pillar in the
New Testament, refers to that which bears responsibility or weight. Galatians 2:9 refers metaphorically
to James, Peter (Cephas), and John as the stulos of the
church, indicating they bore the weight and responsibility of the early church. First Timothy3:15 describes the
church as the stulos and support of the truth. Sometimes
people erected pillars as a memorial or witness commemorating important events or people (Gen.31:45;
35:14; Ex.24:4; and Josh.4:19).
Outside of Solomons Temple stood two pillars; they
were inscribed with Jachin (meaning He will establish) and Boaz (In Him is strength)rather than
with the names of benefactors.3 When Joash took the
Kingdom of Judah from Queen Athaliah, he stood by
these pillars as an apparent endorsement of his position
(2Kings11:14). Josiah also stood by these pillars when
he made a covenant to walk with the Lord (23:3). Many
pillars of the first century were inscribed with the
names of those who were underwriting the cost of the
construction. Similarly, many modern building projects
use engraved pavers to recognizedonors.
As an architectural feature, pillars provided stability
and supported weight. As
a testament to their
durability, pillars of ancient
structures

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (11/30/5)

By Timothy Faber

would be a pillar in the temple of My God (Rev. 3:12).4


This promise both bolstered and
rewarded the peoples steadfastness
I have put before you an open door which no one can shut.
anddetermination.
I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan...[to] come and bow
The reward was because the
down at your feet.
faithful at Philadelphia had kept
I also will keep you from the hour of testing.
the word of My [Jesus] persever I am coming quickly.
ance and because they had kept
His word and not denied His name
I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.
(v.10).
Though they faced opposi I will write on him the name of My God...and My new name.
tion from the synagogue of Satan,
they had been steadfast and immovable. They were a witness and a memorial, commemorating Gods covenant of grace through Jesus Christ.
In a sense, they were already pillars. The church in
Philadelphia focused on lifting up Jesus and causing
others to look beyond them to Someonegreater.
Their faith was bolstered by Jesus promising that he
would not go out from it anymore (v.12). Rather than
fleeing the city because of earthquakes, the overcomer
could be secure in Gods eternal city. And rather than
holding fast to the crumbling, temporal buildings during an earthquake, Christs followers hold fast to the
truth of thegospel.
The Lord also promised to write on these pillars the name of His God. Thus the Philadelphian
Christians are assured that though they are citizens of an earthly city that once bore the name
of a Caesar who claimed to be a god, they
are in fact citizens of the new Jerusalem
bearing the new name of the God of Jesus
Christ.5 The new name being written on
them also indicated that Christ Himself
was the generous benefactor; He paid the
price for the buildinga spiritual house for a
holy priesthood in which all believers are living
stones and of which Christ Himself is the chief
Above: In the
Right: Marble bust
Roman Forum,
from a statue of
Cornerstone (1Cor.3:11;1Pet.2:46).
I

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/23/47)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (20/14/2)

JESUS PROMISES TO THE CHURCH


OF ANCIENT PHILADELPHIA

Trajans Column
commemorates the
generals victory in
the Dacian Wars.

Roman Emperor
Augustus, who
ruled 27B.C.
A.D.14.

are often all that remain when everything else has crumbled. In addition to
the functional purpose, pillars are often
decorative as well. Adorned with pillars, even
the most mundane edifice can lookimpressive.
The Promise
Jesus promised the people of the Philadelphian church
(at least the overcomers among them) that they

1. Alan F. Johnson, Revelation in Expositors Bible Commentary,


gen. ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 12 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1981), 451.
2. Ibid.
3. First Kings 7:21; see NASB margin notes.
4. All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard
Bible (NASB).
5. Edward A McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of
Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951),60.

Timothy Faber is assistant professor of religion at


Liberty University, Online, and the director of missions for the Miller County Baptist Association in
central Missouri.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

41

TGP: John 2:1-11

Jesus and His disciples participated


in a wedding celebration in Cana of
Galilee. Jesus also used weddings as
the setting of several of His parables,
including that of the wedding banquet
(Matt.22:114) and of the ten virgins
(25:113). These stories provide insights
into Jewish weddingtraditions.
Marriage Arrangements
Jewish religious leaders commended
marriage, and the culture viewed marriage as the normal state of life. Young
men usually married between ages18
to24. Young women usually married in their teens, some as early as
age13but some after age20.
A young person in the first-century did not date or choose his or her
own spouse. The head of the familythe fatherselected a wife for his
son and a husband for his daughter.
The parents of the couple made the
arrangements. They did not have to
42 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

consult their children. The preferred


spouse was a cousin or some other
relative within the extendedfamily.
The parents of the prospective
bride and groom sealed the agreement
with a marriage contract to satisfy the
legal requirements. Some historians
contend the groom paid a sum of
money to the father of the brideas
if she were property to be purchased.1
This was variously called a brideprice, marriage gift, marriage fee, or
dowry. Others suggest this did not
represent a payment for the woman
but merely compensated the family
for the loss of her labor.2 Other
writers argue that the father gave
his future son-in-law moneyalso
called a dowryto help defray the
expenses of a wife and the wedding.3
Whatever the specific nature of this

Above:
Tambourine; from
agora at Athens.
Music was a regular part of wedding celebrations.

Right: Close-up of
a Jewish couple
holding hands
during their wedding ceremony.
The brides hands
are adorned with
henna.

transaction, the agreement took place


after lengthy discussion and argument. Then, a contract was prepared
and signed, including the husbands
duties to his wife and the settlement
she would receive in the event of
divorce or her husbands death. Now
the couple wasbetrothed.
The betrothal ceremony took
place in the presence of at least two
witnesses with formal questions
and answers followed by a blessing.
Betrothal was legally binding, ending
only by divorce or death. Jews considered the betrothed couple married
and identified them as husband and
wife. Should the man die before the
actual wedding, the woman became

BY SHARON H. GRITZ

HANDS: ISTOCK PHOTO

ELEBRATION CHARACTERIZED FIRSTcentury Jewish weddings. People of that era lacked


many amusements. Their basic survival demanded hard work. Weddings, therefore, provided members of
thecommunity a break in the drudgery of daily life.

TAMBOURINE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TOM HOOKE/ ATHENS AGORA MUSEUM (66/14/15)

FIRST - CENTURY JEWISH

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

43

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS (5/2/7)

44 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

The family sent out two invitations, one in advance giving the
day and the second when preparations were complete. Two men, one
representing each family, delivered
these invitations in person by word
of mouth. Some guests came on the
basis of the first invitation. Others
required a second personal invitation.
Once a person had been invited, firstcentury society considered failure to
attend to be a seriousinsult.
The bride prepared for her wedding day by bathing, anointing with
oils, and dressing herself with special,
festive garments. She had help and
companionship in all these activities

Upper left: Ruins


of the public bath
complex in the
upper agora at
Ephesus.
Above: Wedding
ceremony taking place inside
the Church of
St. Catherine,
which is adjacent
to the Church of
the Nativity at
Bethlehem.
Right: Blown glass
double perfume
bottle with three
handles and trail
decoration; from
Mount Carmel
region in Israel.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/29/64)

Wedding Preparations
In light of the importance of the
wedding celebration, families invested time, energy, and resources in preparing for this event. The major part
of the wedding involved the wedding
feast. Since the meal took place in the
grooms home, he and his family had
the most preparations tomake.
For farming communities, autumn
was the best time of year to have
a wedding. Families had harvested
their crops, providing more resources
and more time to prepare and enjoy
the festivities. Virgins married on
Wednesdays; widows, onThursdays.
Prior to the wedding day, the
couples families made invitation
lists. Those invited included all relatives of the bride and groom, plus
friends. Wealthy families invited
large numbers of people, sometimes
the entire village. Some people traveled great distances to come to the
celebration. Others came who had
not beeninvited.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/47/25)

a widow. Betrothals usually lasted a


yearuntil the bride left her familys
house and moved into the home of
her groom. The bride, however, could
go directly to the grooms home after
the betrothal ceremony. During the
betrothal period the couple often had
little or no contact with eachother.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/ ST. LOUIS MUSEUM OF ART (76/1685)

Wedding Celebrations
The wedding proper involved two
events: the wedding procession and
the marriage feast. The chief moment
was the arrival of the bride at the
bridegrooms house. On the eve of
the wedding day, the groom and his
friends went to the brides house
where she was clothed and waiting
with her own family and friends.
The grooms best man, the friend of
the bridegroom, organized this and
served as a master of ceremonies.
With much laughter, shouting, music,
tambourines, singing, and dancing
the wedding party carried the bride,
often on a litter, from her familys
home to her new home in the grooms
household. The singing included love
songs passed down from generation
to generation, perhaps similar to
those in the Old Testament Song
of Songs. Since this procession took
place after sunset, the group needed
torches to travel through the dark
streets. After arriving at the grooms
house, the bride retired to her own

Right: A mosaic
of the wedding
festival of Ariadne
and Dionysus
found in situ at
Philippopolis,
Syria. The mosaic
is Roman and
dates from the 1st
cent. A.D.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ SHAHBA


MUSEUM/ PHILIPPOPOLIS, SYRIA (8/36/19)

from her friends and female family members. Bathing might require
a ritual bath on the day before the
wedding. Some sources suggest that
the bride had the palms of her hands,
soles of her feet, and nails stained
with henna. The bridegroom might
give her articles of clothing embroidered with gold or other thread to
wear on the wedding day. The bride
adorned herself with jewels (if her
family could afford them) and garlands of flowers. Before the wedding
party came to claim her, she put on
aveil.
The groom too prepared by bathing. He perhaps also had henna
applied to nails, hands, and feet. In
some instances the bride gave him a
gift of wedding robes for the occasion. At any rate, he wore fine clothes
and garlands of flowers around his
neck. Some grooms woreacrown.

Below: Pair of gold


earrings; Etruscan;
from the Classical
period. The bride
would adorn
herself with
jewelry if
finances
permitted.

room with her friends to await the


festivities and marriage meal of the
next day. The groom and his friends
continued to celebrate with games
anddancing.
The wedding day had a holiday
atmosphere. The young men played
games; the young women danced.
Relatives and friends brought gifts
to the couple. Toward evening everyone enjoyed a generous meal, including roasted oxen and fatted calves.
Everybody ate and drank heartily.
The hosts were to meet every need.
To run out of anything, such as wine,
would have been a serious breach
of hospitality and a terrible embarrassment. The bride and groom sat
under a tent or canopy. This ceremonial feast was probably all that
the wedding involved for some time.
As the wedding ceremony developed
through the years, though, participants added spoken blessings and
solemn promises and eventually even
read the weddingcontract.
The feasting and rejoicing of
Jewish weddings generally lasted for
seven days, often severely straining a

familys resources. Poorer people went


to their jobs each day but returned for
the evening meals. On the first night,
the couple retired to consummate the
marriage. They did not leave on a
honeymoon but rejoined the ongoing
festivities. They wore their wedding
finery allweek.
Jewish weddings were so filled
with joy, fellowship, and celebration
that the New Testament uses the
image of the wedding feast for the
Messiahs future banquet to picture
the joy, fellowship, and celebration
Jesus will have with His followers
in Gods kingdomforever.4
I
1. Representative of this view is A.
C. Bouquet,
Everyday Life in New Testament Times (New York: Charles
Scribners Sons, 1953),145.
2. Leo G. Perdue, The Israelite and Early Jewish
Family: Summary and Conclusions in Families in Ancient
Israel, contributors Leo G. Perdue, Joseph Blenkinsopp,
John J. Collins, and Carol Meyers (Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 1997),184.
3. See Craig S. Keener, Marriage in Dictionary of
New Testament Background, ed. Craig A. Evans and
Stanley E. Porter (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2000),685.
4. Matthew8:11; 22:114; Revelation19:79.

Sharon H. Gritz is a freelance writer living in Fort Worth, Texas.


SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

45

BSFL: Revelation 2:1-7

The

Jesus strong words to the churches at Ephesus and


Pergamum serve as both instruction and warning.

46 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Orontes River
flows through
Antioch. In the
New Testament
Era, Antioch was
in northern Syria;
today, however,
it is a major city
in south-central
Turkey.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (12/17/10)

Nicolaitans

By Michael Priest

Left: Icon depicting Clement of


Alexandria, who
spoke honorably
of Nicolaus.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (11/27/14)

PUBLIC DOMAIN

S I TYPE THIS ARTICLE, MY YOUNGER


brother, who is three-and-a-half years my junior, is
celebrating a birthday. His special day has taken me
down memory lane, remembering the good times and
not so good times of our childhood. Fondly, I remember when we were Batman and Robin saving Gotham,
James West and Artemus Gordon foiling evil masterminds, and Starsky and Hutch taking down drug kingpins. Not so fondly, I remember he was my dupe and I
was his deceiver. By the time he was 8years old, he had
figured me out; but in the early years he was too gullible
for my conniving mind to resist. For example, one night
as I was splashing around in a tub full of warm water
and soapy bubbles, my toddler-aged brother ambled
into the bathroom. The look in his eyes screamed, I
want in! Seizing my opportunity I said, Why dont
you jump in with me and wash your clothes so Mom
doesnt have to do it later? She will be proud of you.
As soon as he was fully submerged, I yelled at the top
of my lungs, Mom, Mark climbed in the tub with his
clothes on! Score: he was punished and I could mark
up another win! Fortunately, he caught on to my tricks,
I outgrew my deceptive ways, he demonstrated gracious
forgiveness, and hasnt exacted revenge...yet.
In some ways I was a modern version of the
Nicolaitans of Revelation2: deceiving others to lead
them into sin. In this article we will explore the
Nicolaitanswho they were, what they taught, the
danger they posed to the church, and lessons we can
learn from Jesus remarks aboutthem.
The origin of the Nicolaitans is far from certain.
They are first mentioned in Revelation2:6 then again

Below: Perched
on the hillside,
the theater at
Pergamum, which
dates from the
2nd cent. B.C.,
has 80 rows with
a seating capacity of 10,000. The
rows are made of
andesite except
for the honor box,
which is marble.

in 2:15, passages in which John provides no clues to their


origin. The earliest non-biblical accounts are not helpful either. The church fathers Irenaeus and Hippolytus
state they were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch, one
of first seven deacons, whom the church in Acts6
appointed to minister to the Hellenistic Christian widows. These followers of Nicolaus later strayed from the
faith and began living lives of immorality.1 Clement
of Alexandria, however, states that Nicolaus was a
worthy man who taught that Christians must check
pleasures and lusts and learn to control their impulses.
Furthermore, he states that the Nicolaitans claimed to
follow Nicolaus, but actually distorted his teaching and
advocated self-indulgence.2 Because of the disagreement among earliest testimony, identifying the origins
of the Nicolaitans is all butimpossible.
The Nicolaitans teachings, however, are easier to
determine, not so much from the writings of the
church fathers, but from what Jesus said about them
in Revelation2. He simply stated that the church at

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

47

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (38/1093)

Above: Mount
Nebo overlooks
the Jordan River
Valley. Balak took
Balaam to the top

of Pisgah (Nebo)
to curse the
Israelites (Num.
23:14). Following
Balaams lead,

Balak enticed
the Israelites to
commit acts of
immorality and to
worship Baal.

Ephesus hated the works of the Nicolaitans, as does He


(Rev.2:6). To the church at Pergamum He said:
But I have a few things against you. You have
some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in
front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to
idols and to commit sexual immorality. In the
same way, you also have those who hold to the
teaching of the Nicolaitans. (vv.1415, hcsb)
Jesus use of the Greek word houtos, translated In
the same way in verse15, indicates the teachings of
Balaam and the teachings of the Nicolaitans were
one and the same.3 Thus investigating the teachings of Balaam in the Old Testament is essential for
us to understand the teachings of the Nicolaitans as
mentioned in the NewTestament.
Numbers2224 records that Moabs King Balak became
concerned that Moab would never be able stand before the
recently liberated Israelites and their God. He knew his
army could not defeat Israel, so he sent messengers to the
prophet Balaam with money to hire him to curse Israel.
Initially, Balaam refused to go, but eventually agreed to
accompany them, but clearly stated he would speak only
the words God gave him. Three times Balak built seven
altars, offered sacrifices, and allowed Balaam time alone
to hear God in hopes that the Lord would curse Israel
48 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

through Balaam. Each time, Balaam returned with a


blessing instead. Angered, Balak dismissed Balaam to
return home. Realizing he could not curse Israel and perhaps, therefore, that he would not receive his pay, Balaam
devised a plan. He explained to Balak that if he and his
people would entice Israel to sin by worshiping Baal, eating meat offered to idols, and committing immoral acts,
God would punish the nation. In short, Balaams sin was
to teach Balak to entice Israel to curse itself through willful idolatry and immorality. In the end, God destroyed
24,000 Israelites through aplague.4
Following in the footsteps of Balaam, the Nicolaitans
were attempting to entice Christians to compromise
holiness and accommodate worldly beliefs and practices
by indulging in meat offered to idols and participating in
sexual acts that were part of pagan worship.5 The result
of such compromise would be to misrepresent the character of Jesus and His church and to cheapen grace.6 The
church at Ephesus resisted the temptation, but some in
the Pergamum church fell prey to Nicolaitandeception.
Jesuss strong words to the churches at Ephesus and
Pergamum serve as both instruction and warning. To the
church at Ephesus, Jesus said He hated the practices of
the Nicolaitans rather than the Nicolaitans themselves
(Rev.2:6). Jesus approach is solid instruction for His
church. The church today, as does Jesus, must hate sin,
but always extend grace to sinners. The church exists to
be the holy body of Christ, ever calling sinners to repentance. His promise in verse16 that if they did not repent
He would come and fight against them with the sword of
His mouth serves as a warning that God is serious about
sin and will judge those who persist in it and the church
that turns a blind eye to it. Both Jesus and Paul provided
clear instructions about church discipline. The church
today must stop ignoring sin in its ranks and deal firmly,
but lovingly, with sinning brothers and sisters. If not, a
punishment is soon to comea punishment more severe
than what my fully clothed yet wet brother received! I
1. See Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.3 in Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of
the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 [ANF], ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 1:352; and Hippolytus, The Refutation of
All Heresies7.24 in ANF, 5:115.
2. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata2.20 in ANF, 2:373.
3. John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church: An Exposition of Revelation 13
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 56; and David E. Aune, Revelation 15, vol. 52A
in Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 188; and Robert H.
Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 81.
4. See Numbers25:19; 31:16; and Revelation2:14.
5. Mounce, The Book of Revelation,81.
6. In Romans6:1-2, Paul addressed the issue of believers willful sinning simply because
the grace of God is available. He warned the Christians at Rome that this should never
happen.

Michael Priest is pastor of Bartlett Baptist Church,


Bartlett, Tennessee.

ETB: Revelation 21:1-7

Alpha
Omega
and

Behind the fortified walls is the


monastery of St.
John on Patmos.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TOM HOOKE (66/10/19)

By Bobby Kelly

ARLY IN REVELATION,
John reported Gods self-declaration: I am the Alpha and
the Omega (Rev.1:8).1 This assertion appears again in Revelation21:6
and 22:13. The declarations strategic placement at the beginning

and end of Revelation reflects the


majesty of the God who is the
beginning, end, and everything in
between.
Background and Meaning
Alpha and omega are the first and
last letters of the Greek alphabet.
God, speaking in the first person,

helped define what He meant by


adding the Beginning and the
End (21:6). In the final use of the
phrase, Jesus added of Himself: I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End(22:13)
The Old Testament provides critical insight for understanding what
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

49

A-B-C-D. . .

HOWN RIGHT IS A
cuneiform tablet from the
royal palace at Ras Shamra
that dates to the thirteenth century b.c. The tablet is inscribed with
an incomplete abcedary, meaning
the alphabet written out. This
was usually done to help someone
learn to write the letters.

50 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

PUBLIC DOMAIN

again in Isaiah44:6: This is what


the Lord, the King of Israel and its
Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, says:
I am the first and I am the last.
There is no God but Me.3 Isaiahs
words provide an intertextual link
that gives further insight into the
phrases meaning in Revelation.
The Isaiah passages declare that
God alone created all that exists
and He alone stands as the sovereign Lord of time and history.
Babylon had its gods fashioned
by human handsbut Yahweh
alone is the absolute, incomparable
God over all thenations.
In Revelation
The declaration that the Lord is
Alpha and Omega appears three
times in Revelation. The first is in
part of the books introduction that
identifies the God who was giving
the revelation: I am the Alpha and
the Omega, says the Lord God, the
One who is, who was, and who is
coming, the Almighty (1:8). Here
the phrase occurs as the Fathers
self-declaration that He is the absolute ground of being, the first cause
and initiator of all creation (the
One who was), the sustainer of the
universe (the One who is), and
the goal toward which all creation
is moving (the One who is coming). God also designated Himself
the Almighty, or in Greek, pantokrator. Occurring nine times in
Revelation (see also 4:8; 11:17; 15:3;
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM/ PARIS (335/16/18)

the Lord meant with the self-identification the Alpha and the Omega.
All three instances in Revelation
begin with the Lords words of selfidentification from Exodus3:14: I
AM. This is the language God
used to identify Himself to Moses:
I AM WHO I AM. This is what
you are to say to the Israelites: I
AM has sent me to you.2 At the
burning bush, God instructed Moses
to declare to the Israelites that He
would bring them out of Egyptian
bondage. Moses, anticipating the
people would inquire about the
name of the God who sent him,
asked how he should respond. The
response I AM indicated something of Gods absolute existence.
This emphasized both that God
exists and that He is the liberator
God who is present with His people.
For the apostle John, the connection
was clear; this God who brought
Pharaoh to his knees and set His
people free in the days of Moses was
the same God who would not fail
His people in their oppression under
the RomanEmpire.
Additionally, the prophet Isaiah
reported the words of Yahweh: Who
has performed and done this, calling
the generations from the beginning?
I, Yahweh, am the first, and with
the lastI am He (Isa.41:4) In
Isaiah 43:10, the Lord declared: No
god was formed before Me, and
there will be none after Me. And

16:7,14; 19:6,15; 21:22), pantokrator indicates that God is ruler of all. This
was in stark contrast to the Roman
emperor who was autokrator (from
which comes the English term autocrat), that is, absolute ruler of the
Empire.4 While Caesar (autokrator)
might claim power and sovereignty
over the Empire, including the right
to persecute believers, Jesus (pantokrator), has eternal power and abiding sovereignty over all creation.
Thus, Caesars power is limited and
temporary. This comparison would
have comforted Johnsreaders.
The second usage of Alpha and
Omega occurs in Revelation21:6 at
the beginning of the books last major
section, which focuses on the new
creation: And He said to me,...I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. In this
context the Alpha and Omega title
confirmed that God has the power
to make all things new, including
heaven and earthwhere crying,
pain, and death will be no more.
Only the One who existed before
time and will exist after time has
the authority to bring creation to its
appointedgoal.
The final Alpha and Omega saying is in the books epilogue. Unlike

Left: Fragment of
Revelation 3:12
4:12; dates to the
4th cent.
Far right: Palace
of Domitian on
Palatine Hill in
Rome. Emperor
Domitian, who
reigned A.D.
81-96, demanded
to be worshiped
as lord and god.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (19/15/16)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/


ORIENTAL MUSEUM/ CHICAGO (70/9011)

Right: Cylindrical
jar with a
lid, dated to
before A.D. 70;
from Cave 1 at
Qumran. Several
Dead Sea Scrolls
discovered at
Qumran were
stored inside of
jars like this one.
The community
at Qumran was
established by a
group (possibly
the Essenes) who
were separating
themselves from
the rest of society
as they awaited
the coming of the
Lord. While waiting, they copied
biblical and religious texts we
know as the Dead
Sea Scrolls.

the first two instances in which the


Father made the pronouncement,
here the risen Christ declared: I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End (22:13). Thus, fittingly,
the Alpha and Omega sayings
appear at the beginning (alpha) and
the end (omega) of Revelation. The
fact that Jesus is the one making
the third self-declaration reveals
the books high Christology. Johns
using the term Alpha and Omega
of both God and Christ reveals the
same divine majesty and power for
both. The saying identified Christ
with the creation of all things as
well as the completion of Gods
purposes for the creation. Christ
shared the eternal life of God before

creation, and the fullness of


deity belongs to Him forever. What is true of the First
Person of the Trinity is true
of the Second as well. Johns
readers could have confidence
that this One would keep His
promise to come again and
that He would repay all people
according to their deeds (v.12).
Caesar might claim lordship over
his empire, but he pales in comparison to Christ, who is sovereign
over the beginning, the end, and
everything inbetween.
Implications
The use of I AM in Exodus3:14
and the Isaiah4044 assertions of
God as first and last provide the
proper context for understanding
the meaning of God as the Alpha
and Omega in Revelation. He is the
incomparable, eternal God, first and
last, who is, who was, and who is to
come. The God who was present at
the beginning as Creator will likewise be present at the conclusion as
creations Redeemer.
Further, the God who is Alpha
and Omega exercises sovereign

control over all time and history.


Consequently, people cannot view
history as a meaningless cycle of
events going nowhere. Instead,
events are part of Gods plan for
guiding history to its proper conclusion. Confidence in Gods sovereign rule of history past and
present would offer hope for Jews
suffering during the Babylonian
exile, Christians suffering under
Roman oppression, or twenty-first
century Christians suffering trials
and even persecution.
I
1. All Bible quotations are from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB).
2. Some scholars make the connection between the
I AM of the three Alpha and Omega declarations and
the divine self-identification I AM to Moses. See G. K.
Beale, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1999), 188; Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the
Book of Revelation (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1993), 28.
3. For the connection between the Alpha and Omega
sayings in Revelation and Isaiah 4045, see David
Lincicum, The Origin of Alpha and Omega (Revelation
1.8; 21.6; 22.13): A Suggestion in Journal of GrecoRoman Christianity and Judaism6 (2009): 128; and Craig
Keener, Revelation, The NIV Application Commentary
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 73.
4. Keener, Revelation, 73-74.

Bobby Kelly is the Ruth Dickinson


professor of Bible at Oklahoma
Baptist University, Shawnee,
Oklahoma.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

51

TGP: Luke 11:5-13

HOUSes IN JEsUS DAY


Using a method
that dates back
centuries, this
Iraqi stone house
has a roof constructed of wooden poles that have
been covered over
with thatch and
compacted mud.

52 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

B y Pa u l E . K u l l m a n

Housing Boom
In 20b.c., King Herod the Great initiated a major building
program that brought in more than 10,000 workers to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.2
These workers came from cities and
villages scattered throughout
the Roman Empire. This rapid
increase of construction forces
meant new housing had to be
built inJerusalem.
The resultant housing boom
caused Jerusalems population to
expand, which in turn revitalized a
stagnant housing market. This increase
in housing construction was felt
throughout Judea. Jerusalem would be
a key destination for construction work
for the 46years that the second temple took to complete (John2:20). The
ambitious project ultimately changed
the size, population, and economics of
Jerusalem and further established its
importance to the region. That growth
attracted other merchants and suppliers anxious to conduct business with

Design
Houses in the first century were designed and built in the
most simple of details. Workers used tools such as the
handsaw, adze (stone chisel), bow drill, hammer, and mallet. Many homes today are still built with similar construction methods in rural locations in Third World nations
where the poor have few options. First-century house
design utilized the basic square or rectangular shape with
a short span across the narrowest width. This span was
accomplished using wood beams set upon load-bearing
dried mud brick walls or locally mined and cut stone. The
roof composition was constructed with dried wood poles,
thatch, or tiles (Luke5:19) that spanned perpendicular to
the thicker, wood-beam supports. The same wood beams
Below left:
Hammerhead dating 1st2nd centuries A.D.
Bottom: After
the third Jewish

revolt against
the Romans,
known as the Bar
Kokhba revolt
(A.D. 132-136),
the Jews were not
allowed to live in
Jerusalem. Many
of them thus settled in the region
north of the Sea
of Galilee. One
such community
was at Yehudiya,
which dates to
about A.D. 200
400. During the
Ottoman period,

many Arabs,
using stones and
materials they
found on the site,
resettled here
and built these
structures on top
of the centuriesold foundations
and footprints
of the earlier
structures. These
remains thus give
a good impression of what an
early Jewish village would have
looked like.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/9413)

HAMMERHEAD: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/25/76)

THATCH ROOF: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TERRY EDDINGER (35/43/51)

TOOL BOX: ISTOCK PHOTO

N SOME WAYS, LIVING IN A HOUSE WHEN


Jesus walked the earth was not much different from
what we experience today. Eventually, the transportable
nomad tent housing of the Old Testament years gave way
to a more permanent dwelling. The Hebrew word for house
(bayith) came from the term meaning to spend the night1;
that imagery was carried into the New Testament Era.
Thus a societal shift allowed permanent villages to grow
into cities that offered safety in numbers from invading
armies. Building a permanent house fulfills a basic human
need for shelter, security, stability, and protection from the
weatherwhile offering a fixed place to raiseafamily.
Luke11 records Jesus lesson about the persistence of a
hungry sojourner with a late night visit to a man and his
family. The text states that the door was shut and secured
for the night. That simple statement tells us something
about the house of the first century. A tent would not
afford that type of security. Those inside were away from
the dangers of the open air and were protected from both
the elements and unwanted intruders. The sojourner could
not just walk into the house and take food as he could if his
neighbor lived inatent.

the influx of skilled laborers. As skilled craftsman moved


into Jerusalem, they brought with them new ideas of design
and construction from their regions. Although the second
temple was built for further edification of Judaism, the
result was that Jerusalem would change from a town into
a metropolis. This caught the interest of Rome with its
insatiable need for newtaxes.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

53

Below: Mud oven,


which would have
been common
in many ancient
homes. The fire
was allowed to
burn down to

embers. Then
someone would
slap flat bread
dough against the
inside wall of the
oven, reaching
in from the top,

and would peel


the bread loose
once it was done.
This method is
still in use in many
parts of the world
today.

houses had marble floors or at least a plastersurface.


Most houses were modestly furnished, usually with
a table and chairs. People slept on pallets on the floor.
Essential supplies included cooking pots, an oven, plates,
lamps, and storage jars known as amphora. Of course, the
more affluent owners homes had vases, beds, and furniture
for reclining. Excavations reveal that many houses depended
on cisterns forwater.
Right: This model
of Jerusalem in the
time of the second
temple shows the
Tyropoean Valley
with rows of houses
on what was called
the Southwestern
Hill. Parts of the
Temple Mount and
Antonia Fortress are
in the upper-right
corner. The large
flat structure just
below the center
of the photo is the
complex for the
Pool of Siloam.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/59/93)

served as lintels above some of the wall features, such as


doors. The roof surface was a layered composition of dried,
compacted mud covered with brick paver or flat stone,
which was typically a durable and impervious surface.
Most ancient houses had an outside stairway that led to
a flat roof area, which people used for various domestic
activities such as drying fruit or sleeping on hot nights or
when the owner needed an outside workspace or simply an
area of repose (Acts10:9). The roof area would sometimes
adjoin other houses, depending on the spatial density of
the building layout area and whether this was a rural or
urban house. This enabled neighbors to share a common
wall, which meant less labor and expense than building four walls, as was required in a freestanding house.
Interestingly, each Israelite house typically had a parapet
to keep a non-owner from falling off and creating a blood
guiltiness condition (Deut.22:8). This practical safety
feature is still used on modern flat roofs and balconies as
required by local buildingcodes.
A prodigious amount of archeological excavations have
exposed many stonewall foundations. The foundations
reveal that most small, common houses were approximately 15x15 feet; although some were as large as 30x30 feet
range.3 The floor plan consisted of two to four rooms with
at least one larger area for sleeping and another to accommodate cooking. Some houses had livestock stabling inside
the house, for use during the cold winter months. The door
would be the only entrance; small windows helped with air
circulation or smoke exhaust. The floors were compacted
dirt covered with straw or loose gravel. More affluent

Below: Artists
rendering of a 1st
cent., four-room
Jewish home. The
design, though, was
common among the
Israelites as far back
as the 8th cent. B.C.
Persons entered the
house into an open
area, which the family used for cooking,
entertaining, and
for housing small
animals at night.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (46/2305)

ILLUSTRATOR ART/ BILL LATTA

54 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Right: Part of the


Villa of Mysteries
at Pompeii. Dating
to early in the 2nd
cent. B.C., the villa
covered about
40,000 square feet
and had over 50
rooms.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/ ORIENTAL MUSEUM/ CHICAGO (70/8985)

Below: An
Egyptian wooden
mallet, dated to
about 1185-1170
B.C., reflects a
design that has
changed little since
ancient times.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (20/3/18)

Types of Houses
New Testament Era house construction reflected the owners financial resources. Small, common houses were more
numerous and built of austere means. Many times, these
smaller houses were clustered around a shared courtyard,
especially in areas where a citys population density restricted expansion. The courtyard area served as an entertainment
and outdoor cooking area that neighborsshared.
Meanwhile, the wealthy would build large, spacious, and
palatial houses that usually occupied the hillside areas of cities. In Jerusalem the affluent area was known as the Upper
City in contrast with the Lower City (or the Tyropoeon
Valley) separated by the Herodian Wall.4 These affluent
houses would be multi-level structures with large and open
spaces, many of which served as sleeping areas. The larger
homes also had additional living areas designated for entertaining. Some rooms were designated as work areas for the
servants, who had their own separate sleeping quarters.
Interior finishes include exposed cedar wood beams from
Lebanon and marble from Greece or Italy. The wealthy were
not only Jewish aristocracy but also foreign ambassadors and
of course, the Romansboth government andmilitary.
House Churches
Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house was the practice of early
believers (Acts2:46, nkjv). Houses belonging to converted

Jews served the early church well. Houses were the choice
venue for small groups of believers as the new church
began to grow in number. Once a modest home could
no longer provide adequate space, then the congregants
would move to a synagogue (if permitted), a larger house,
or the open air. These New Testament house churches
were located in numerous settings.5 Only in a.d.313, when
Emperor Constantine declared Christianity legal, did the
early congregations begin to move out of their houses into
buildings constructed specifically for worship. Thus, the
houses during the time of Jesus were not just for practical
residential use, but were also incubators that permitted
the church to grow in safety. Without the Christian homes,
believers would have been exposed in the open and would
have endured persecution due to their highvisibility.
I
1. Harry A. Hoffner, tyIB; (bayith, house) in Theological Dictionary of the Old
Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1975), 107-108.
2. Max Schwartz, The Biblical Engineer: How the Temple in Jerusalem Was Built
(Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, 2002),4.
3. John S. Holladay, Jr., House, Israelite in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. in chief
David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992),3:31416.
4. Marsha A. Ellis Smith, gen. ed., Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, and
Reconstructions (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 15859.
5. For examples, see Acts 12:12; 16:40; 17:15; 18:18; Romans 16:35;
1Corinthians16:19; Colossians4:15; and Philemon12.

Paul E. Kullman is an architect in College Station, Texas.


A member of the American Institute of Architects and
the Texas Society of Architects, Paul is also a graduate
of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort
Worth, Texas.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

55

ETB: Revelation 16:16

Megiddo
A Crucial Locale

By Jeff S. Anderson

EGIDDO, the crown


jewel of biblical archaeology, is one of the most
important sites in Israel, and for that
matter, the entire ancient Near East.
A World Heritage Site, Megiddo
stands watch over the expansive
Jezreel Valley. Megiddo really had it
all: a fertile and well-watered plain
nearby, a strategic location on the
crossroads of two major trade routes
between Asia and Egypt (the Via
Maris and Jezreel trade routes), and
56 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

a defensible location. Ancient letters


discovered at el-Amarna, Egypt, indicate Megiddo was one of Canaans
most dominant city-states. Biridiya,
King of Megiddo, sent these letters to
the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten in
the fourteenth centuryb.c. Megiddo
enjoyed robust periods of occupation
from 3500 to 500b.c. and was inhabited during every era of Israelshistory.
A Historical Battlefield
Megiddo preserves a long history of
being an international battleground
with 34 recorded battles in that area.1

The following description represents


what is often touted as the earliest
account of a major battle in antiquity. When the Canaanite city-states
revolted against a fifteenth-century b.c. Egyptian Pharaohs transition
to power, their armies assembled at
Megiddo. The Egyptian army, led
by Pharaoh ThutmoseIII, stunned
the unsuspecting agitators by going
against his own generals and choosing
the most dangerous route of attack,
directly through the vulnerable bottleneck of the Aruna Pass. After routing
the Canaanite forces and capturing

Right: Megiddo
was a Canaanite
stronghold that
overlooked the
Jezreel Valley and
guarded the main
pass through the
Carmel Mountains.

Early Bronze Age


temple complex
at Megiddo.
Partially shown at
the deepest level
and in the upper
left corner of the
photo are the
remains of a mudbrick altar that
was a part of the
complex.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JEFF ANDERSON

rich plunder, ThutmoseIII laid siege to


Megiddo for seven months. His decisive victory enabled him to eventually
incorporate Canaan as a province in
his empire of Egypts NewKingdom.2
Over successive generations
Megiddo witnessed many other formidable armies, including the Canaanites,
Egyptians, Assyrians, Israelites,
Philistines, Persians, and Romans.
Over 1,000 years after the fall of the
Roman Empire, Napoleon fought near
the site in 1799. Concerning Megiddo
he is purported to have proclaimed:
There is no place in the whole world

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ ORIENTAL INSTITUTE/ UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (6/16/2)

Below: An ivory
game board
with 58
holes;
inlaid with
gold; from
Megiddo.

more suited for war than this...[It is]


the most natural battleground of the
whole earth.3 In the twentieth century, Megiddo witnessed the defeat of
the armies of the Turks and Germans
during World WarI as well as the
victory of the Israelis in the 1948
War of Independence. Today, the
Ramat David Airfield of the Israeli
Air Force is less than 20miles from
Megiddo. These factors can help readers understand why the Mount of
Megiddo, called Armageddon in the
New Testament, is the site where
the battle of the great day of God, the
Almighty occurs(Rev.16:14, hcsb).
The Great Temple
Four excavations have revealed over
20 different occupation layers at
Megiddo from 3500500b.c. Since
1994, Tel Aviv University has assumed

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/24/2)

work at Megiddo as well as several


other projects in the Jezreel Valley.
Discoveries in 2012 included a hoard
of gold and silver jewelry dating
from 1100b.c., but the primary
focus of the Tel Aviv operation
has been to clarify chronology at
thesite.
Archaeologists continue to make
exciting discoveries at Megiddo to
this day. One noteworthy recent
project has been the excavation of a
huge 1,100 square meter (about 11,840
square feet) temple dating to around
3000 b.c., centuries before the arrival of the Israelites. This temple is
the most monumental single edifice
uncovered in the promised land and
one of the largest structures of the
Near East.4
A Canaanite temple, designed by
a professional, highly skilled team
of architects, was part of a massive
temple complex that was re-envisioned and reconstructed many times
over many centuries. With walls over
3.5meters (about 11.5feet) thick, the
floor of the building contains massive basalt slabs weighing over a ton
each. These are in two rows flanking
the longitudinal axis of the temple. These basalt slabs were clearly
not for roof support but for some
unknown and highly sophisticated
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

57

Right: In
the Tel Dan
inscription
King Hazel of
Syria brags that
he killed King
Ahaziah.

ABILENE

REGION IN THE
TIME OF JESUS

Sidon

Damascus

ITUREA

(T

YR

E)

City
Decapolis city
Major roads
Other roads
Ruled by procurators
Territory of Antipas
Territory of Philip
Syrian territory

Dan
hway

gs
Kin

OE

EA

NITIS

PH

ULA

Lake
Huleh

Hig

GA

NI

CI

Tyre

Capernaum
Bethsaida
Sea of Gergesa
GALILEE

BA

Galilee

Mt. Carmel

Nazareth
Je

zr

on R.
ish

Megiddo
Aruna Pass

Gadara
ee

lV
a

AURANITIS

lle y

Beth-shan

J o r d a n R.

DE

Shechem

CA

PO

Gerasa

Via
M

aris

Pella
SAMARIA

LI

AN S
EA

TA

Tiberias

Caesarea Maritima

PE

DIT

Gezer
Jerusalem

Philadelphia
(modern Amman)

EA

JUDEA

Ashdod

Jericho
Bethany

Ashkelon

Machaerus

Gaza
IDUMEA

Beersheba

Arad

Masada

Kings Hig
hwa
y

DEAD
SEA

Hebron

0
0

58 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

10
10

20
20

30

30
40

40

50 Kilometers

50 Miles

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (35/43/29)

Biblical References
The Bible contains about a dozen
references to Megiddo. The first
is to a certain king of Megiddo,
who is on a list of vanquished
monarchs that Joshua conquered
(Josh.12:21). Consequently, Megiddo
was then allotted to the tribe of
Manasseh(17:11). The Book of Judges,
however, indicates that the situation
was not quite that simple. Israel was
seemingly unable to completely subdue Megiddo after all (Judg.1:27).
Later in the same book, Deborah and
Barak overcame Sisera near this site,
after which Sisera suffered a rather
unceremonious death by tent peg
in the tent of Jael the Kenite. The
Song of Deborah refers to the waters
of Megiddo as the place where God
delivered Israel(5:19).
During the Israelite monarchy,
Solomon made Megiddo a district
administrative capital along with two
other major fortified sites: Hazor and
Gezer. The gate systems at these three
sites are nearly identical. The Bible
refers to Solomons robust building
activity, which included the addition
of palaces, terraces, and city walls
(1Kings9:15). A century later, the
Bible records that Jehu killed Israels
King Jehoram and Judahs King
Ahaziah near Megiddo (2Kings9:27),
while the Tel Dan inscription boasts
that Syrias King Hazael was the one
who murdered these twokings.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/63/67)

Joppa

ERR

ANE

TRACHONITIS

Ptolemais

ME

HOLMAN BIBLE PUBLISHERS

cultic practices. Two rear corridors


called favissa were filled with sacrificial bone refuse, mostly young sheep
and goats. The site had no evidence
of humansacrifice.
Inhabitants of the lower village
accessed this hilltop temple from the
eastern slope of the mound and the
main entry faced a mud brick and
stone altar that stood at the geometric
center of the temple.5 This magnificent shrine was abandoned for a time
and later reoccupied. A series of later
temples were built one on top of the
other, including the shrine that contained the famous Early Bronze Age
roundaltar.

Ruins of the stables at Megiddo,


which date to the
9th cent. B.C.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/12/82)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/27/6)

A few later references to Megiddo


may point toward an emerging
popularity of the site in apocalyptic thought. Josiah, the last good
king from the Davidic dynasty, was
fatally wounded at Megiddo in battle
against Pharaoh Neco (2Kings23:29;
2Chron.35:2224). Even though a
few more kings ruled briefly after
Josiah, for all practical purposes the
death of Josiah brought an abrupt
and tragic end to the Judean monarchy. Zechariah may record a reference
to the deep mourning that
followed Josiahs death,
The mourning in
Jerusalem will be as great

as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon


in the plain of Megiddo (Zech.12:11,
hcsb).6 If the last king of the messianic line died at Megiddo, could that
site have later messianicimplications?
Megiddo and Armageddon
Without a doubt, one of the most popular biblical texts pertaining to Megiddo
is Revelation16:16. Some interpret that
this pivotal location will be where
the spiritual forces of the heavens
and the kings of the earth gather
about 41/2 feet
high. Four steps
lead to the top
of the altar. The
altar was located
behind the actual
temple.

Left: Dated to
about 2500 B.C.,
circular Canaanite
altar at Megiddo;
the altar measures 25 feet in
diameter and

Left: Unearthed
at El-Amarna,
Egypt, a terracotta letter from
Megiddos King
Biridiya to Pharaoh
Akhenaten; dated
14th cent. B.C.
King Biridiya was
complaining that
he was supplying
workers, evidently
for the time of
harvest, and his
neighbors were
not.

together for the ultimate battle of


good versus evil. The New Testament
adopts the term Armageddon, a corruption of the Hebrew, Har-Megiddo,
which translates Mount Megiddo.
This reference in Revelation reveals
the context of the sixth and seventh
bowls of wrath, which predict the fall
of Babylon the Great. Whether the
reference in Revelation is to a historical battle or the metaphorical demise
of evil, Megiddo retains both a lively
past and an intriguing future in the
Bibles history and theology.
I
1. Eric H. Cline, The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo
and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear
Age (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2000), 1.
2. Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization
Collapsed (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press,
2014),28-30.
3. Cline, The Battles of Armageddon, 142.
4. Matthew J. Adams, Israel Finkelstein, and David
Ussishkin, The Great Temple of Early Bronze I Megiddo,
American Journal of Archaeology 118 (April 2014):
285305.
5. Matthew J. Adams, Jonathan David, Robert S.
Homsher, and Margaret E. Cohen, The Rise of a Complex
Society: New Evidence from Tel Megiddo East in the Late
Fourth Millennium, Near Eastern Archaeology77, vol.1
(2014): 3243.
6. This text is unclear. It may instead be a reference to
2Kings5:18 parallel of weeping for a Babylonian deity.

Jeff S. Anderson is professor of religion at Wayland Baptist University,


Anchorage, Alaska.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

59

BSFL: Joshua 22:11-34

REUBEN

HIS LAND
AND HIS
LEGACY

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8332)

By Robert A. Street

HE STORY OF REUBEN BEGINS BEFORE HIS


birth; it involves his father Jacob and his grandfather
Laban. After Jacob, one of the patriarchs of Israel,
worked for seven years to earn the hand of Rachel in marriage, Laban presented him with Leah instead for his first
bride. Although Jacob had to work for seven more years for
his beloved Rachel, he did not completely reject Leah. In
time, Leah bore Jacob his first son, Reuben (Gen.29:3132).
Reubens Story
Reubens recorded actions are few. One of his earliest recorded events involved his sleeping with his fathers concubine
Bilhah (35:22). This action served to symbolize his claiming
Jacobs place as leader of the family and affected the blessing
he would receive from Jacob as the patriarch neared death
60 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

(49:3-4).1 Jacob blessing his sons provides the final snapshot

of Reuben in the Book ofGenesis.


Other stories in Genesis give readers a different impression of Reuben. In the story of Joseph being sold into slavery,
Reuben tried to save Joseph by having him thrown in a pit
with the intention of rescuing the youth later. But when
Reuben returned, Joseph was gone(37:2129).
After Joseph had risen to power in Egypt, famine engulfed
the region, including Canaan. Jacob sent his remaining sons,
except for Benjamin, to Egypt to seek grain. In the encounter
with his brothers, Joseph accused his brothers of being spies.
Joseph required the youngest son Benjamin be brought to
Egypt to prove the charge of spies was untrue. When returning to Egypt was necessary, Reuben offered his sons as a
guarantee for Benjamins safety(ch.42).
When Jacob, at the end of his life, blessed his sons, he
named Reuben first. The blessing, which was almost a curse,

Left: Ruins at
ancient Heshbon,
one of the cities
the Reubenites
rebuilt (Num.
32:37). Heshbon
was on the northern border of territory of Reuben, just
south of Gad.

Below: Found at
Dibon in 1868, the
Moabite Stone
with the inscription
from Moabs King
Mesha; basalt; 9th
cent. B.C. In the
inscription, Mesha
bragged about conquering and gaining
control of Aroer.

was evidently tied to Reubens action


with Bilhah. No longer was Reuben to
excel (49:34). After this, Reuben passed
from the biblical scene. His descendants, though, survived through the
Egyptiancaptivity.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8377)

Reubens Descendants
In the first chapter of the Book
of Numbers, the account of the
census that Moses took refers to
Jacobs descendants as the sons
of Israel (Num.1:2, nasb). The
census lists Reuben first. Elizur,
the head of the house of Reuben,
is named before the heads of the
other families (v.5). When the
census of men age20 and older
is enumerated, Reubens descendants appear first, with a total
of 46,500(v.20). A later census numbers the Reubenites
at 43,730 (26:7). Interestingly,
2Samuels account of this census (ch. 24) does not mention Reubens tribe or territory.
The tribe of Reuben was named among the twelve when
the Israelites left Sinai (Num. 10:18). Shammua was the representative from the tribe of Reuben who explored the promised land (13:4). Later, two Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram,
joined with Korah (the son of Levi) in leading 250 Israelites
in a rebellion against Moses. As an act of Gods judgment,
the earth opened and swallowed the tents and families of
Dathan, Abiram, and Korah (16:1-35).
Reubens Territory
In its Early DaysNumbers31 recounts the people of Israel
fighting and subduing the Midianites. After these lands
east of the Jordan were under Hebrew control, the sons of
Reuben and the sons of Gad asked to be granted the territory.

Heshbon Bezer

Mt. Nebo

Dead S
ea

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ LOUVRE/ PARIS (264/29)

Right: Ruins at
ancient Aroer,
which served as
a major fortress

on the southern
boundary of the
territory of Reuben.

Medeba

Baal-meon

Dibon
A r n o n River

Aroer

Tribal Allotment of

REUBEN
ILLUSTRATOR MAP/ LINDEN ARTISTS/ LONDON

Moses granted the request with the condition


they would assist in the war on the west side of
the Jordan (32:2527). If they assisted in the warfare, the land of Gilead would be their territory
(v.29). Numbers32:3342 records Moses granting the territories belonging to Sihon (king of the Amorites) and Og (king
of Bashan) to the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe
of Manasseh. Specifically, the sons of Reuben built and lived
in the cities of Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, Nebo, Baalmelon, and Sibmah (32:3738). According to 1Chronicles5:8,
the Reubenites also settled as far a Nebo and Baalmeon.
Joshua13:1523 also mentions the lands granted to the
Reubenites on the east side of the Dead Sea. The territorys
southern boundary is at Aroer in the Arnon River Valley.
The northern limit seems to have been near where the
Jordan River entered the Dead Sea (Josh.13:23). In addition
to the cities of Numbers, other cities in Reubenite territory
included Dibon and Medeba. The region also included the
slopes of Pisgah, the burial place of Moses (Deut.34:1). The
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

61

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (8/31/9)

city of Bezer was to be a city of refuge in


Reubens territory (Josh.20:8).
Joshua22:1034 describes the conflict
between the tribes east of the Jordan (including the Reubenites) with the rest of Israel over
the establishment of an altar. Seen as apostasy, the
western tribes gathered at Shiloh to wage war over the altar.
However, an assembly consisting of Phinehas the son of
Eleazar and a leader from each of the 10western tribes were
sent to investigate. The inquirys conclusion was the structure was not an altar for sacrifice. Phinehas reported this,
resulting in no more talk of warfare between the tribes. The
altar was named it is a witness between us that the Lord is
God (22:34, hcsb).
Judges4 establishes the scenario for the next reference
to Reubenites during the period of the judges. The city of
Hazor was not under Israelite control because of their doing
evil in the sight of the Lord (Judg.4:1, hcsb). In her
song, Deborah included a reference to Reubenites (ch.5).
The verses related to the Reubenites (vv.1516) indicate the
eastern tribe did not respond to the call to arms against King
Jabin of Hazor. They stayed home and kept their flocks.
In its Later HistoryControl of the region surrounding
Heshbon, Dibon, and Medeba often changed hands during
biblical times.2 Conflicts over the region existed during the
times of Saul, David, and Solomon. After the establishment
of the Hebrew monarchy, several Israelite and Judean kings
attempted, some more successfully than others, to rule this
portion of the Transjordan with which the Israelite tribes
were associated. David, Omri, Ahab, and JeroboamII were
the more successful ones.3
In 1868, a German missionary found in Dibon (also
spelled Dhiban) one of the most valuable non-biblical
62 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Below: Dated
11151077 B.C.,
tablet records
names of those
Assyrias King
Tiglath-pileser I
conquered.

references to the events of the region.


Known as the Moabite Stone or the
Mesha Stela, the basalt stone monument contains an inscription describing
Israelite history through foreign eyes.
The stone claims Israels King
Omri (ruled 885874b.c.) had
recaptured Medeba, but afterward
Moabs King Mesha regained
control of the region. Of Israels
history it is learned that the warlike Gadites had absorbed the
tribe of Reuben, and that they
upheld the banner of Israel east of
the Jordan.4 On the Moabite Stone,
among the cities listed that Mesha
conquered or rebuilt are Baal-meon,
Dibon, Aroer, Bezer, Nebo, and Medeba,
each associated with the tribe of Reuben. The stone does not
mention, however, the tribe or territory of Reuben.
First Chronicles5:110 gives a genealogy for the sons
of Reuben until the Assyrian exile. Tiglath-pileser carried
Beerah, a descendant of Reuben, into exile (1Chron.5:6).
The passage concludes with a note that the tribe conquered
the Hagrites during the time of Saul and dwelt in all the
region east of Gilead.
As history progressed, control over the region changed
from one conqueror to the next. Although later documents mention the territories of Gad and Manasseh, fewer
mention Reuben, leaving many scholars to surmise that
the territory was likely absorbed by the stronger tribe
of Gad and by the Moabites. Although details of their
demise are unclear, by the end of the Old Testament
Era, the territory and the tribe were long gone.
I
1. Study Notes on Genesis 35:2122 in HCSB Study Bible, gen. ed. Edwin A. Blum,
Jeremy Royal Howard (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2010), 68.
2. Maxwell Miller and E. Ray Clendenen, Moab and the Moabite Stone in Holman
Illustrated Bible Dictionary (HIBD), gen. ed. Chad Brand, Charles Draper, and Archie
England (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1146.
3. J. Maxwell Miller, Transjordan in HIBD, 1614.
4. Moabite Stone, JewishEncyclopedia.com [online; accessed 11 July 2014].
Available from the Internet: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10899-moabitestone.

Robert A. Street is professor of computer information


systems and Old Testament at Campbellsville University,
Campbellsville, Kentucky.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/3/20)

Left: Gilead, east


of the Jordan
River, became
home to the tribe
of Reuben after
the conquest of
Canaan.

ETB: Revelation 1

DOMITIAN

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/ BOSTON (31/3/20)

Emperor ofRome

Bust of Domitian;
marble. The bust
originally depicted
Nero, but after
his death was
recarved to depict
Domitian.

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

63

64 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Below: Ruins
of the Temple
of Domitian at
Ephesus. The
original structure
honored Domitian;
his older brother,

Lower right:
From Carthage,
a head from an
over-life-sized
statue of Emperor
Vespasian
(A.D.69-79).

Titus; and their


father, Vespasian.
Right: Dated
about A.D. 80,
marble bust of
Emperor Titus.

TEMPLE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TOM HOOKE (66/6/13)

given a number of honorific titles,


but he had no real authority. His
father was more prone to criticize him
than elevate him. Vespasians stronger
support always went to Titus.2
Partly, this may have been due to
Domitians arrogant behavior when
he was installed as the titular head
of government while Vespasian was
making his way from Judea to Rome.
Domitian assumed control of an army
and led a short-lived effort to bring
forces in ancient Gallia and Germania3
under the control of the new Flavian
Dynasty. Tacitus, a Roman historian,
suggested this was a possible power
play on Domitians part. Considering
this background, Domitians later
actions likely were attempts to bolster
his own self-esteem and his reputation
among those aroundhim.4
Titus followed Vespasian as
emperor with no real opposition.
His rule, however, was short compared to his fathers. His reign was

TITUS: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/7/34)

OMITIAN (a.d.8196)
was the third and last of
the Flavian emperors. The
short-lived dynasty had been founded by Domitians father, Vespasian
(a.d.6979), who had been a senator and general until his elevation to
emperor by the army. Titus (a.d.7981)
was Domitians older brother and
ruled after Vespasian for a short period
oftime.
The Flavian family was not part of
traditional Roman nobility. The family came from a small village near
Rome named Falacrinae. The elevation of the Flavians to imperial status
occurred more from military success
than birth. In spite of humble beginnings, Vespasian was a highly effective
emperor and, thus, was able to establish
his two sons as hissuccessors.1
Although able to benefit from his
fathers success, Domitian was not the

favored son. He was never as close to


his father as his brother, Titus, who
campaigned with his father in the
conquest of Judea following its revolt
against the Romans in a.d.66. Since
Titus was about 11years older than his
brother, he had greater opportunities
thanDomitian.
Titus had received an imperial
education in his youth because his
father Vespasian was in favor at that
time. Domitian received a limited
education because Vespasian had fallen out of favor during Neros reign
when Domitian was a youth. When
the opportunity came for Vespasian to
lead the Roman war against the Jews,
Domitian was too young to participate. Titus, however, was Vespasians
close associate in the endeavor.
Domitian was, in many ways, the
forgottenson.
When Vespasian came to power,
Titus ruled alongside his father
almost as an equal. Domitian was

VESPASIAN: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/23/51)

By Timothy N. Boyd

Right: View from


Patmos.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/ BOSTON (64/2576)

Below: Cuirassed
marble torso
dated A.D. 90-96.
Romans frequently
honored emperors
and successful
generals with portrait statues wearing breastplates
(cuirasses). In

the center of the


breastplate is the
image of a statue
of the goddess
Minerva flanked
by Victories.
The emphasis
on Minerva suggests the statue
was a portrait of
Emperor Domitian,
whose patron
deity was Minerva.

only two years. He


had no male heirs
and the army
still favored the
Flavians. Thus,
when Titus died,
Domitian
came
to power with the
militaryssupport.
In spite of his limited education and his
lack of real responsibility during the reigns
of his father and
brother, Domitians
first years were
notably successful.
He followed his
fathers example
and brought solid
administration to
the empire. He
also continued
the rebuilding of
significant structures in Rome as well
as new constructionprojects.5
Although Domitian was highly
promiscuous, he tried to restore a
sense of morality to Rome by forbidding lewd behavior in both public
and private realms. This reflected
his desire to restore many of Romes
ancient values including a renewed
reverence for the traditional gods.
He also punished Vestal Virgins for
immorality where his father and
brother had not pursued thematter.6
The empire continued to expand
under Domitian with a campaign in
the British Isles of a general named
Agricola. Domitian, himself, took

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ TOM HOOKE (66/11/20)

the field in Germania


and extended the conquest of Rome in that
vicinity as well.
He also attempted
to extend Roman
control into Dacia
(modern Balkans)
with limited success. In spite of
his success and his
rewarding the army,
a legion in upper
Germania under
the
leadership
of the governor,
Antonius, instigated a revolt against
him. He quickly moved north and
put down the revolt. Antonius was
killed, and the officers of the legion
were ruthlesslypunished.7
In Rome, Domitian had a bad relationship with the Senate; their power
had significantly diminished since
the time of Augustus. Domitian,
however, abandoned even the semblance of recognizing the Senates
authority and became increasingly
despotic. He used trials to suppress
critics of hisregime.
From the aftermath of the death of
Julius Caesar, who lived 10044b.c.,
the idea of an imperial cult had been

promoted. Emperor Augustus (ruled


27b.c.a.d.14) was worshiped as a god
after his death. Subsequent emperors
continued this practice of elevating
previous emperors to divinity. The
Romans worshiped Vespasian after
his death under the authority of his
son, Titus. Domitian carried this concept even further, expanding it to his
wholefamily.
According to Domitian, the
Flavians were a divine family.
Domitian also took steps to see that
he was recognized as divine during
his own lifetime. This was partly
motivated by a desire to offset the
humble origins of the Flavian family.
In Rome, tradition dictated against
this kind of worship of a living
emperor. Domitian, therefore, had
limited successalthough he took it
as far as he was able. For example,
he built a large number of statues of
himself in gold, and he insisted upon
being addressed as our master and
ourgod.8
In Asia Minor, Domitians
demand for worship would have been
regarded more seriously. Those living
in this area had a tradition of recognizing living rulers as divine. Around
a.d.90, Domitian gave permission for
the city of Ephesus to erect a temple
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

65

FRIEZE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KEN TOUCHTON/ VATICAN MUSEUM/ ROME (4/15A)

STATUE: COREL PHOTO

66 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

Above: Frieze
depicting the
arrival of Emperor
Vespasian (ruled
A.D.69-79) in
Rome. The noble
figure in the toga
in the upper right
of the frieze is the
emperor. His son,
Domitian, as praetor urbanus, welcomes his father
who is returning
to the city as
emperor.

At the Forum
in Rome, statue
and house of the
Vestal Virgins.
Domitian opposed
the Vestal Virgins
because he considered their activities immoral.

Left: A golden
Roman aureus
coin had a value
of 25 denarii; obverse,
Domitia (wife
of Domitian)
facing right;
minted in Rome
A.D. 91-92.

Eusebius saw Domitian as being a


persecutor of the church, we need
to point out that this persecution
was not as severe as the earlier
persecution under Nero. John was
exiled; he was not executed. The
persecution was certainly short-lived
because of Domitians assassination.
Most conservative biblical scholars
agree that this persecution under
Domitian provided the context
of the Book of Revelation. This
helps us date the book in the last
decade of the first century.
I

1. Michael Grant, The Twelve Caesars (New York:


Barnes & Noble, 1975),21112.
2. Ibid.,24042.
3. The regions of ancient Gallia and Germania include
modern France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, and
Germany.
4. Tacitus, Histories4.86.
5. Suetonius, The Life of Domitian5.
6.Ibid.,78.
7. Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book67,11.
8. Donald McFayden, The Occasion of the Domitianic
Persecution, The American Journal of Theology24, no.1
(January 1920):5457; Suetonius, The Life of Domitian13.
9. Gordon Franz, The King and I: The Apostle John
and Emperor Domitian, Part 1, Associates for Biblical
Research [online; 18 January 2010; accessed 14 July
2014]. Available from the Internet: www.biblearchaeology.
org/post/2010/01/18/the-king-and-i-the-apostle-johnand-emperor-domitian-part-1.aspx.
10. Revelation 2:1-7 Prophetic Oracle for Ephesus,
John Marks Hicks Ministries [online; accesses 15 July 2014].
Available from the Internet: johnmarkhicks.com/2013/06/04/
revelation-21-7-prophetic-oracle-for-ephesus/.
11. Grant, The Twelve Caesars,253.

Timothy N. Boyd is director of


communications and family evangelism for the Kansas Nebraska
Convention of Southern Baptists,
Topeka, Kansas.

COIN: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/ BOSTON (319/3)

to him as part of the imperial cult


that made this city a key center of the
worship of Domitian. This coupled
with a strong legion presence that
supported Domitian put Christianity
and Domitian on a collisioncourse.9
Ephesus already had a history of
conflict with the church as evidenced
in the riot led by Demetrius and the
silversmiths against the church in
Pauls time (Acts19:23-41). Possibly
this new temple, coupled with
Domitians insistence upon being
treated as divine in his own lifetime,
caused a clash with the church in
Ephesus, a congregation the apostle
John led.10 This was likely the catalyst that caused Domitian to exile
John toPatmos.
During the last three years of
Domitians reign, the Senate and
other officials lived in constant fear
of their lives. The complicity of his
wife, Domitia, and the leaders of
his own Praetorian Guard finally
brought down Domitian. A freedman, Stephanus, on the pretext of
bringing him a document, stabbed
him with a knife. In the ensuing
struggle another person rushed forward and helped kill Domitian. Men
rushed in to help Domitian. Realizing
what had happened, they then killed
Stephanus.11
While later historians such as

BSFL: Jonah 1:1; TGP: Jonah 3:5-8

BY

RT C. DUN
ST
O

RO

BE

J nah
ISTOCK PHOTO

A Prophet for
His Time

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

67

HE BIBLE PROVIDES LITTLE PERSONAL


information concerning Jonah. It does provide
us much information about the time in which
he lived, information that can help readers better appreciate Jonahs ministrynot just to Nineveh but to the
Northern Kingdom of Israel aswell.
According to 2Kings14:25, Jonah was the son of
Amittai from Gath-hepher. The town of Gath-hepher
lay in the tribal area of Zebulun about three miles
northeast of Nazareth, which indicates Jonah was born
in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.1 Either before or
after Jonahs prophetic ministry in Nineveh, he provided a positive message from God to King JeroboamII
and Israel. Jonah stated that, through JeroboamII,
God would extend Israels northern border to Lebohamath, the northernmost border
during the great days ofSolomon.2
Jonahs positive message to
JeroboamII likely served as one of
the few during Jeroboams 41-year
reign (793753b.c.). The Bible designates JeroboamII as an evil king
because he continued the sins
of JeroboamI, the first king of
Northern Israel following the
division of the kingdom after
Solomons death (1Kings12:20).
JeroboamI recognized that with the Above: Marble
temple still in Jerusalem, his people carving dating
the early
might continue going to Jerusalem from
300s A.D. depicts
to worship and perhaps desire to Jonah being cast
reunite with Judah, the Southern out of the boat.
The image on the
Kingdom. He built two competing front of the carving
shrines, one in Bethel in the south- shows the great
spitting up
ern part of his kingdom and one in fish
Jonah.
Dan in the northern part. He set
up a golden calf in each shrine and Below: This hilltop
is the location of
identified each golden calf with God Gath-hepher, a
who had brought Israel out of Egypt town on the bound-

(vv.2530). His action recalled Aarons sinful deeds and


words and Israels idolatry with an earlier golden calf
shortly after God had brought His people out of Egypt
(Ex.32:24). Jeroboam installed non-Levite priests at
the two shrines and instituted a new festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month to counter the festivals
in Jerusalem (1Kings12:3133).
Despite JeroboamIIs great sin, he lived in a fortunate
time. Assyrias King Adad-nirariIII (ruled 811784b.c.)
crushed Damascus and received tribute payments from
other nations including Israel, but he was followed by
three weak kings who faced internal problems and an
external threat from the kingdom of Urartu, north of
Assyria. These three rulers barely held Assyria together.
Expansion was out of the question. Assyrias lack of

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/9781)

68 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ary of Zebulun
(Josh 19:13) and
the hometown to
the prophet Jonah.
The name means
winepress on the
watering hole.
Right: A mosque
honoring the
prophet Jonah is
located near the
town of Gathhepher in the
Galilean town of
Mashhad.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/9771)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART/ NEW YORK (337/10)

interference in the land of promise allowed the Northern


Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah
almost 40years of independence andprosperity.3
JeroboamII took advantage of Assyrias weakness,
exercising authority over Damascus and Hamath in
the north (2Kings14:28) and probably restricting the
power of the Moabites and Ammonites in the southern Transjordan. Jeroboams peace with King Uzziah
of Judah brought the trade routes that traversed their
kingdoms firmly under their control and both nations
profited. The Red Sea may again have become a channel for lucrative trade with nations to the south, and
the northern coastal city of Tyre may well have become
a partner again for trade along the Mediterranean
Sea. The population of both nations grew, agricultural
resources were developed, and various industries flourished.4 Many believed their prosperity constituted a
sign of Gods pleasure andblessing.
The external signs of peace and prosperity, however,
masked the internal sin and decay. As is typical, economic prosperity did not reach every level of society.
While a small wealthy class became even wealthier,
most people struggled to make ends meet. Droughts and
insect infestations caused crop failures that often led to
farmers losing their ancestral lands and becoming hired
hands or servants. Government taxes and payments to
the new landowners left little for the farmers to sustain
themselves and their families. The Law instructed the
Israelites to care for one another (Lev.25:3546), but the
wealthy instead took advantage of the common peoples
difficulties and thereby enlarged their holdings and
Below: Mock-up of
a Canaanite altar
(left) and high
place (right) at
Dan. The original
dates to the time

of Jeroboam son
of Joash (8th cent.
B.C.) and replaced
an earlier structure
constructed by
Jeroboam son of

Nebat in the 10th


cent. B.C. This was
a sacred place for
a thousand years,
until the end of
the Roman Era.

increased their wealth. Amos, a contemporary of Jonah,


accused the wealthy of oppressing the poor by profiting
from their misery through injustice and shady business
practices (Amos2:68; 8:46) and by focusing on their
own comfort rather than the needs of others (4:1;6:17).
If the wealthy had faithfully obeyed God, they could
have withstood the temptations prosperity brought.
Unfortunately, decay had invaded Israels relationship
with God as well. Amos stated that worshipers filled
the temple in Jerusalem and the religious shrines in
Israel, offering sacrifices, prayers, and psalms (4:45;
5:2123). While the religious activity looked impressive,
the people were simply going through the required rituals, believing this was all God wanted. Hosea, another
contemporary of Jonah, stated the people, including the
priests and prophets, had no true knowledge of God
and what He desired (Hos.4:16). People worshiped
the Lord but also worshiped false gods, including
the fertility gods of the land (vv.1214). The people
remembered how God had saved Israel in the past and
led them into the promised land. They believed He
was fully committed to them and all they had to do to
maintain His love and protection was to make sure they
performed the required religious rituals. God really
desired justice and righteousness (Amos5:24), love and
obedient knowledge of Him (Hos.6:6), but tragically
foundnone.
Into this world situation came the prophet Jonah.
The name Jonah means dove. His fathers name
Amittai derived from the Hebrew verb meaning to
confirm, support from which we derive our word
Amen. The name Amittai came also from the noun
meaning faithfulness, truth.5 Many people of that day
had names based on God and His worship even though
they did not worship the Lord exclusively or obey Him.
Perhaps though, Amittais name and Jonahs calling as a

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES MCLEMORE (13/33/9-10)

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

69

prophet indicate this family believed in God alone and


sought to obeyHim.
While Assyria remained weak throughout the reigns
of JeroboamII and Uzziah, memories of Assyrias earlier aggression in Israel remained. In approximately
841b.c., Assyrias King ShalmaneserIII (859825b.c.)
pressed south, taking tribute payments from Israels
King Jehu. In approximately 802b.c., Adad-nirariIII
did the same, and likewise took tribute payments
from Israel.6 Nineveh dated back to approximately
4500b.c. and constituted one of the larger and more
important cities of Assyria. The city lay on the eastern shore of the Tigris River. The modern city of
Mosul in Iraq abuts the ruins of ancient Nineveh.7

The reconstructed
Nergal Gate at
ancient Nineveh.

ISTOCK PHOTO

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ LOUISE KOHL SMITH (32/17/6)

Above:
Overlooking modern Mosul in Iraq,
which is at the site
of ancient Nineveh.
Right: An attendant god that
stood outside
the doorway to
the Temple of
Nabu. The inscription mentions
Adad-nirari III
and his mother
Sammuramat.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/5/52)

Although Nineveh was not the capital of Assyria in


Jonahs time, it was a major city. Ninevehs ruler and
people would have represented the entire nations
glory, power, dreams, and sin. No Israelite would have
wanted to set footthere.
The Israelites felt invincible in their own land. They
trusted that since God had delivered Jerusalem from
Assyria in the days of Hezekiah (2Kings19:3537), He
would deliver them again if necessary. Perhaps Jonahs
reluctance to go to Nineveh reflected his fear that the
Assyrians, who had no knowledge of God, would
respond to his preaching with repentance. If they did,
their repentance would surely doom the Israelites, who
knew Gods saving acts but refused to obey Him.8 I

70 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

1. Gath-Hepher in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, gen. ed. Chad Brand,


Charles Draper, and Archie England (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003),627.
2. Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8 in The New American Commentary (Nashville:
Broadman & Holman, 1995),326.
3. John Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1981),25556.
4. Ibid., 25759.
5. tm,a/, yT;mia] (emeth, Amittai; faithfulness, truth, Amittai) in Francis Brown, S.R.
Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon [BDB]
(1906; repr. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), 57; see also tm,a/ (emeth;
faithfulness, truth) in BDB, 54; and !m;a' (aman, to confirm, support) in BDB, 52-53.
6. Bright, A History of Israel, 243, 25456.
7. Billy K. Smith and Frank S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol.19B in The
New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995),224.
8. Ibid.,227-28.

Robert C. Dunston is professor and chair


of the religion and philosophy department at University of the Cumberlands,
Williamsburg, Kentucky.

LIVER: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ JOSEPH A. CALLAWAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM/ THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY/ LOUISVILLE, KY (13/13/19)

CLOUDS: ISTOCK PHOTO

TGP: Psalm 96

GLORY
A HEBREW UNDERSTANDING

By Stephen J. Andrews

OT SURPRISINGLY,
the most frequent use of the
Hebrew word translated
glory (kabod) occurs in the Psalms,
the praise-book of ancient Israel. Out
of the 200occurrences of the noun
glory in the Old Testament, the
Psalter employs the term 51times
with the majority referring to the
glory of the Lord (Hebrew, kebod
YHWH).1 In fact, several psalms
repeatedly mention Gods glory or
the glory of His kingdom: Psalm24,
5times; 29, 4times; 96, 3times; and
145,3times.
The Hebrew concept of glory
derives from a common West Semitic
verb (kabed) meaning to be heavy
or weighty.2 Etymologically, the
Hebrew word for liver (kabed)
may also be connected to this same
verb.3 People of the ancient Near
East considered the liver to be the

heaviest and most important organ


in the body. They valued it for use
in divination (Ezek.21:21). The Old
Testament, however, seldom uses the
word for liver (14times); this omission may reflect Israels hostility to
thepractice.4
On the other hand, the verb
kabed occurs 114times in the Old
Testament. The literal sense of the
verb, to be heavy, occurs twice
(1Sam.4:18; 2Sam.14:26), but the
majority of occurrences are figurative. Most of these are negative in
meaning where heavy or weighty
implies that something is difficult
or burdensome, something that
weighs upon or oppresses someone
(Ps.38:4;Prov.27:3).
The figurative connotation can
also be positive. In such cases, the
verb be weighty carries the sense
of being noteworthy or important.
The implication extends beyond the
more abstract English term honor

Above: Clay replica of a sheeps


liver that was
used for hepatos-

copy, liver divination. The original


was found at
Hazor.

to suggest having respect, esteem,


and even veneration (Ex.20:12;
Pss.22:23; 86:12; Isa.60:13).5 When
people used the verb to express religious honor to God, it denoted a
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

71

72 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

times the poet appeals in Psalm96


for people to recognize Gods glory
(vv.3,7,8). The psalm begins with
an invitation to worship (vv.13).13
Verse3 calls the people to Declare
[Gods] glory among the nations.14
Then later, in a set of instructions for
worship (vv.79), the poet tells the
same group to Ascribe to the Lord
glory and strength and Ascribe to
Below: The pyramid and temple at
Saqqara, Egypt.
Netjerkhet Djoser,
the second
king of Egypts
3rd Dynasty
(27002600 B.C.),
was buried here.
Djoser was the
builder of the first
pyramid in ancient
Egypt. The com-

pleted structure
was 204 feet tall.
After revealing
his identity to his
brothers, Joseph
said, Tell my
father about all my
glory in Egypt and
about all you have
seen. And bring
my father here
quickly (Gen.
45:13, HCSB).

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (15/12/17)

2Chron.7:3; Ezek.10:4), and reaches


the heavens (Pss.57:5,11; 97:6).
God revealed this glory to His
people and associated it with certain
items. God disclosed His glory to
Israel in a cloud (Ex.16:10; 24:16)
and a consuming fire (24:17). He displayed His glory to Moses (33:18,22),
Aaron (Num. 16:42; 20:6), the elders
(Deut.5:24), and to the entire community (Num.14:10; 16:19). Gods glory is
associated with His throne (Jer.14:21;
17:12), over the ark of the covenant and
the cherubim (1Sam.4:2122),9 and
in Jerusalem (Zech.2:5). David stated that God crowned mankind with
glory and majesty (Ps.8:5).10 Even the
priests garments were to reflect His
glory and beauty (Ex.28:2,40).
Several Old Testament texts depict
God as the universal and eternal King.
Because He is King, people are to
honor Him above all others. He is the
God of the Glory (Ps.29:3) and the
King of the Glory (24:710, emphases added).11 His is a kingdom of
glory (145:1112). He will not surrender
His glory to anyone else, let alone
idols (Isa.42:8;48:11).
The manifestation of Gods glory
produces reverence (Lev.9:2324;
Ezek.1:28; 3:23), a yearning to be
in His presence (Ps.63:12), and the
promise of a future life (73:24). His
glory will endure forever (104:31). It is
worthy of praise (66:2;145:11).
Seven psalms focus on the kingship of Yahweh.12 One of these is
Psalm96, which focuses primarily on
Gods kingship over all peoples. Three

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ LOUISE KOHL SMITH (33/20/5)

concrete human response based on


Gods love and mercy (Ps.50:15). For
those who glorify Him, God will
reciprocate in kind (1Sam.2:30).
Since the Hebrew noun translated
glory (kabod) in the Old Testament
is derived from the verb kabed, it
shares in the same dual connotation
of be heavy and be honored.6 It
displays both theological and nontheological usages.7 For example, nontheological or secular uses of kabod are
in Isaiah22:24; 66:12; and Nahum2:9;
here the noun refers to a burden of
responsibility or abundance of material items. Likewise the noun refers
to architectural splendor (Hag.2:3);
nature (Isa.35:2; 60:13); and human
distinction, position, reputation, or
honor (1Sam.2:8; Ps.112:9; Prov.15:33;
20:3). Kings, priests, and sages are
due honor (Ex.28:2,40; Ps.21:5;
Prov.3:35), but not fools (Prov.26:1,8;
Eccl.10:1). Parents should also receive
glory (Mal.1:6; cf. Ex.20:12). Proper
conduct also produces honor
(Prov.15:33).
The most distinctive use of the
noun kabod, however, points to
Gods manifest splendor and glorious majesty (Ps.145:5).8 The glory
of the Lord (kebod YHWH)
fills the whole earth (Num.14:21;
Ps.72:19; Isa.6:3), indwells
the tabernacle and
temple (Ex.40:3435;
1Kings8:11;

ILLUSTRATOR ART/ LINDEN ARTISTS/ LONDON

Left: The Lion of


Babylon statue
was a symbol
of the goddess
Ishtar, who supposedly rode on
the lions back
on a saddle.
Underneath the
lion is a man,
which symbolizes
Babylons strength
over peoples. In
an oracle, Isaiah
declared that the
Lord was going to
destroy Babylon:
And Babylon, the
jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of
the pride of the
Chaldeans, will be
like Sodom and
Gomorrah when
God overthrew
them (Isa. 13:19,
HCSB).

Right: Artists
rendering shows
a cut-away of
Solomons Temple
in Jerusalem.
Shown are the
holy area and the
most holy area,
the latter of which
housed the ark
of the covenant.
During the dedication ceremony,
the Lords glory
descended and
filled the temple.

Burning bush at
St. Catherines
monastery at the
foot of Mount
Sinai. When he
encountered God
at the burning
bush, Moses asked
to see Gods glory.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE

Yahweh the glory of His name. The


call to recognize the honor and glory
that God deserves as King plays a significant part in the theological meaning of the psalm. It is a reminder
that since God is King over all the
nations, His glory deserves to be
acknowledged andproclaimed.
That glory can now be seen in the
Messiah, Jesus Christ (Isa.4:2). As
the one and only Son, He came to

glorify the Father (John1:14; 17:15).15


So when we faithfully proclaim
Jesus, we declare Gods glory to the
nations (Ps.96:3).
I
1. Isaiah uses the term 38 times. M. Weinfeld, dAbK
(kabod, heaviness) in G.Johannes Botterweck, Helmer
Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds., Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament [TDOT], trans. David E.
Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995),7:24.
2. C. Dohmen, dbeK' (kabed, to be heavy) in Ibid.,13;
John N. Oswalt, dbeK' (kabed; to be heavy, grievous,
hard, rich, honorable, glorious) in R.L.aird Harris, ed.,
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [Harris]

(Chicago:
M o o d y ,
1980), 1:426; dbk
(to be heavy) in L. Koehler
and W. Baumgartner, The
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old
Testament [HALOT] (Leiden, Brill, 2000),2:455.
3. See dbeK' (kabed, liver) in F.Brown, S.R.Driver,
and C.H. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and
English Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996),458;
John N. Oswalt, dbeK' (kabed; liver) in Harris, 1:426.
Compare Dohmen, TDOT, 7:1315.
4. P. Stenmans, dbeK' (kabed, liver) in TDOT, 7:21.
5. Dohmen, dbeK' (kabed, to be heavy) in TDOT, 7:16.
6. Weinfeld, dAbK' (kabod, heaviness) in TDOT, 7:23.
7. dAbK' in HALOT,2:457.
8. The noun is used about 45 times to refer to a visible manifestation of God. See Oswalt, dbeK' (kabed;
to be heavy, grievous, hard, rich, honorable, glorious) in
Harris,1:427.
9. The name Ichabod means Where is the glory?
10. Weinfeld, dAbK' (kabod, heaviness) in TDOT,
7:28.
11. In each case of these verses, the definite article
the is placed in front of the noun kabod (glory).
12. C.Hassell Bullock, Encountering the Book of
Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 188. The
seven Psalms so designated are 47; 93; 95; 96; 97; 98;
and99.
13. Scholars have debated the structure of Psalm96.
As a hymn of praise it is possible to see in the psalm
three cycles of a call to praise followed by a justification
of such praise by reference to Gods nature, attributes,
and deeds (vv.16,710, and 1113). On the structure, see
John Goldingay, Psalms, Volume 3: Psalms 90-150 (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008),101. For the partial structure mentioned here see S.J. Lawson, Psalms 76150,
vol. 12 in Holman Old Testament Commentary (Nashville:
B&H, 2006),11718.
14. Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB).
15. Oswalt, dbeK' (kabed; to be heavy, grievous, hard,
rich, honorable, glorious) in Harris,1:427.

Stephen J. Andrews is professor of Old Testament, Hebrew,


and archaeology and is director
of the Morton-Seats Institute of
Archaeology and Anthropology at
Midwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

73

BSFL: Luke 14:12-24

Dinners

and

Feasts
ISTOCK PHOTO

IN THE FIRST CENTURY

74 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/4/55)

BY DALE GENO ROBINSON

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/ ST LOUIS MUSEUM OF ART (76/1653)

HE PHARISEES SERVANT finally caught up


with Jesus. Please, sir, he might have said,
Rabbi Mordecai would like you to join his
dinner guests for the Sabbathmeal.1
Male-only intimate dinner parties were well-established
and common features of first-century culture. Rabbi
Mordecai and other high-ranking members of Jewish
society regularly attended or hosted such events. Now it
was his turn to be the host. Since
Jesus was a new phenomenon, Rabbi Mordecai
used this occasion to hear
what Jesus had to say. If the
account recorded in Luke14
is any indication, Jesus had
plenty to say and took every
opportunity to sayit.
The first requirement for dinner was dining space. If the hosts
home had a large enough hall, he used
that. Otherwise, he rented or borrowed one.
He made sure it had a separate space for food preparation, and a foyer (or anteroom) in which guests
received a propergreeting.
The dining room had to be large enough for nine
or more men to recline on couches. The smaller
triclinium arrangement placed three diners on
permanent or temporary couches on three
sides of a central table. The arrangement
resembled a U with square corners.
The couches accommodated a reclining
man leaning on his left arm. They were
wide enough for two or three men to

Above:
Banqueters reclining on draped and
cushioned couches, surrounded by
servants and other
attendants; dated

to the 4th cent.


B.C.; from the
Nereid Monument
at the Arbinas
tomb, from
Xanthos, Lycia,
in the modern

Antalya Province
of Turkey.
Below: Etruscan
stemmed cup;
ceramic; dated to
the 6th cent. B.C.

recline side-by-side. This was the optimal arrangement


for guests to converse and interact with eachother.
The open part of the U accommodated a serving
table and the large mixing-bowl called a krater, which
held the mulled wine. The space at
the open end of the U had to
be large enough for entertainers to perform or the guest of
honor tospeak.
The guest list consisted
either of the hosts friends,
business partners, members
of the same social class, club
members, or even clients. The host
sent verbal or written invitations by
messenger, or sometimes he invited the
guest himself. If a new itinerant rabbi was in
town, the host might invite him too. Declining an
invitation was a breach of etiquette. By custom and
practice a host did not usually include his wife or
other respectable ladies as guests in a formaldinner.
Guests knew to dress for dinner. Wealthier persons could afford multiple sets of dinner clothes,
less wealthy guests only one. Evidently at
times the wealthiest hosts even provided
dinner clothing to guests who did not
have them. These clothes were finer
quality and often more colorful than
everydayattire.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

75

76 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

LADLE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/ ST LOUIS MUSEUM OF ART (76/1652)

Continuing to the right, the guests reclined in a


descending, counter-clockwise order of importance
or favor. The person with the lowest status reclined
on the hosts left. All he saw was his hosts back.
The meal began when the host took a piece of
the bread and said the traditional blessing, Blessed
are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe who
brings forth bread from the earth.4 After that, the
eating and conversationbegan.
Bread was the most important menu item. Flat,
round bread similar to pita bread was the main eating utensil. Guests tore off chunks of bread to sop
up sauces, condiments, or stews. They wrapped the
bread around pieces of meat in a kind of sandwich.
Bread became a napkin as diners dipped their dirty
fingers in bowls of water, wiped them with pieces
of bread which they then tossed on the floor for the
dogs to eat and the servants toclean.
A generous host provided a meal drawn from
the bounty of the land. He would serve dinner in
two courses, which the Greco-Romans called the
deipnon and the symposion. The deipnon was the actual
meal. It involved eating and fellowship. This course
might have included pickled radishes, asparagus,
green onions, lamb stew, or baked fish with bulgur
wheat pilaf. Olive oil, hummus, and fresh vegetables
were side dishes. Honey was useful as a
sweetener.
The second course, the symposion, consisted of plenty of spiced
wine diluted with hot water,
hard-boiled eggs with a fish sauce
for dipping, plus pistachios, fresh
figs, dates, pomegranate
seeds, or other fruit.5 The
symposion was more relaxed.
The guests freely conversed,
told jokes, played party games,
or watched the entertainment.
A Gentile feast, or a less-principled Jewish one, included professional escorts, flute-girls, dancers,
and continuous cups of wine during
the symposion.6
Honoring the importance of wine,
the host appointed one guest as the
symposiarch. He functioned as master of
ceremonies and wine steward. He made sure
the servants mixed the wine properly with the
water and spices. He controlled the amount of
wine the guests drank and might lead in thetoasts.

KRATER: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/16/31)

A Gentile formal dinner party usually began


at the ninth hour (3:00p.m.), while informal parties and feasts usually started later. Each could
last for three hours or longer. Jewish feasts usually
started at sundown. The Sabbath meal referenced
in Luke14:2 was most likely the midday meal eaten
after the Sabbath synagogue service. To avoid any
violation of the Sabbath laws, the meal was prepared the day before. Prompt and thoughtful guests
arrived ontime.2
As the guests invited to a Hebrew feast gathered
in the halls foyer, a servant washed their feet and
anointed them with fragrant oil. They washed their
right hands to receive the first cup of wine. The
guests then individually recited the
prayer over the wine, Blessed art Below:
Mycenaean terThou, O Lord, our God, King of ra-cotta krater
the universe, Creator of the fruit decorated with
bands, stags,
of the vine.3 When all of those and birds; dated
invited had arrived, the servants about 1300
ushered them into the diningroom. 1200 B.C.
The host seated his guests Right: Etruscan
according to importance or rela- bronze ladle;
to the
tionship. He placed his most hon- dated
5th3rd centuored guest on his immediate right. ries B.C.

OCTAVIAN: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/23/7)


NERO: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON (6/5/11)
BANQUETERS: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TARQUINIA (19/27/15)

Right: Decorative
band on an Etruscan
krater shows banqueters reclining
as a musician plays,
left. Food would be
served on the lower
tables in front
of the reclining
couches.
Lower right:
Sestertius; Roman;

obverse Nero
(r. A.D. 54-68),
faces left. A sestertius was worth
about one-fourth
of a denarius.
Bottom: Octavian
denarius; bare
head right; inscription: IMP CAESAR
DIVI IVLI F; dated
38 B.C.

A more sedate Jewish


symposium also had the
wine, but offered a
more elevated entertainment, which
included a conversation about the Torah.
If a guest rabbi were in
attendance, the other diners
would discuss his teachings
and quiz him about his interpretation and understanding
of religious matters. Jesus often
found Himself in this position.
He was theentertainment.7
Finally, the host had to pick up the tab. Some extravagant Romans bankrupted themselves paying for
elaborate dinners. A well-known bon vivant, Gavius
Apicius (ca. a.d.30) committed suicide when he realized his annual income of 250,000 sesterces (about
$200,000) could not pay his catering bill to maintain
his extravagant lifestyle. More-thrifty Jewish hosts
would still spend significantsums.8
We only can speculate the cost in todays dollars.
For example, the denarius was a standard minimum
days wage (see Matt.20:2).9 Inflation determined
its buying power. The disciples told Jesus that buying
enough bread for the crowd of 5,000 would take eight
months pay, or about 200denarii (Mark6:37). If each
man ate two large flatbreads, which might cost about
a dollar each, the disciples would need 10,000loaves. If
a denarius equaled $50.00, the cost for bread would be
close to $10,000.10
The hosts expense for feeding each of his guests
two or more flatbreads was merely the beginning.
Good wine, though plentiful, was expensive. Fresh
fish was unavailable, and dried fish was costly. Add to
that the cost of fruits and vegetables, the hall rental,
cleanup, and even the long-term amortization of the
value of his servants and you have a hefty sum. His
dinner party might cost one denarius per guest, plus

a love offering for the visiting rabbi. No wonder only


the rich could afford to host lavishdinners!
Dinners and feasts were an important component
of first-century society. They provided men of means
an intimate forum to strengthen old relationships and
build new ones. They were the proving grounds for
new ideas, and they were often the first place for winning new converts for those ideas. That is why Jesus
loved them so much!
I
1. See Luke14:1.
2. J.P.V.D. Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome (New York: McGraw-Hill,
1969), 33; Douglas E. Neel and Joel A. Pugh, The Food and Feasts of Jesus (Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012),95; Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:5124:53, vol. 3B in Baker
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 1256;
Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24 in The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman
Press, 1992), 386.
3. Dennis E. Smith, From Symposium to Eucharist (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
2003),146.
4. Neel and Pugh, The Food and Feasts of Jesus,98.
5. Ibid.,107108.
6. Smith, From Symposium to Eucharist,138; Katharine Raff, The Roman Banquet,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art [online; accessed 14 July 2014]. Available from the
Internet: www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/banq/hd_banq.htm.
7. Neel and Pugh, The Food and Feasts of Jesus,102.
8. Daniel Rogov, Jewish Foods: Dining in the Holy Land2000 Years Ago, Jewish
Virtual Library [online; accessed 6 June 2014]. Available from the Internet: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Food/dining2000.html; Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient
Rome,36.
9. Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22 in The New American Commentary (Nashville:
Broadman Press, 1992), 302.
10. Determining the actual costs of a wealthy mans dinner party is nearly impossible.
Food costs were dependent on the fluctuating value of the metal of the coinage and the
availability of menu items. These calculations are merely one scenario presented to give
a picture of what such a meal might have cost.

Dale Geno Robinson is the director of adult small


groups and discipleship of First Baptist Church of
Fair Oaks, Sacramento, California.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

77

TGP: Mark 8:27-33

Elijah

and Messianic
Expectations

78 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

By Steve W. Lemke

RAVEN (LEFT): ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8203

ELIJAH: ISTOCK PHOTO

CUP: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (38/0560)

RAVEN (ABOVE): ISTOCK PHOTO

HEN JESUS ASKED


who people thought
He was, His disciples
answered that some said He was
John the Baptist resurrected from the
dead, or Elijah the prophet, or some
other prophet (Mark8:2728). When
Jesus then asked who they thought
He was, Peter answered, You are the
Messiah!(v.29).1
This familiar passage
brings to mind several
important questions.
Why would some people think Jesus might be
Elijah or John the Baptist
returned to life? What did
first-century Jews expect
about end times and the
comingMessiah?
In the Old Testament
First Kings1721; 2Kings12;
and 2Chronicles21 describe
Elijahs life and ministry in
Israel. Elijahs ministry occurred
about 862-852 b.c. He presented
Gods Word to King Ahab and
his wife Jezebel (challenging
their support for Baal worship and their murderously seizing Naboths
vineyard), as well as
Kings Jehoram and Ahaziah.
Through Elijah, God performed several miracles, including sending a
famine, providing oil and flour for a
widow in Zarephath, raising the widows son from the dead, praying down
fire from heaven to burn the altar
in his Mount Carmel confrontation
Left: Close-up of
a fan-tailed raven
(Corvus rhipidurus), which lives
among the cliffs
near the Dead
Sea. As the 3
year drought
began, God had
ravens bring Elijah

food, thus ensuring his survival.


Above: Silver cup
for the prophet
Elijah; gold plated;
mid-19th cent.; this
cup would be used
during the Passover
celebration.

Mar Elias, Arabic


for Saint Elijah
is in the Ajlun
region of northern Jordan. The
location has had
a long association with Tishbe,
the hometown of
Elijah.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (38/0801)

with the prophets of Baal,


sending fire on Ahaziahs
soldiers, and parting the
waters of the Jordan River.
Elijah left this life in an unusual wayin a chariot of fire
powered by awhirlwind.
Later prophets spoke of Elijah
as reappearing at the end of
time. Malachi prophesied
about the coming of
a messenger who
would clear the way
before Me (Mal.3:1).
Elijah would return
before the great and awesome
Day of the Lord (4:4-5). The Day
of the Lord referred to the end of
time at which the Messiah would
appear. This eschatological (meaning end-time) Elijah would turn
the hearts of fathers to their children
and the hearts of children to their
fathers, thus averting a curse on the
land(v.6).
Devout Jews knew well Malachis
prophecy that Elijah would return to
herald the coming Messiah, ushering in the end of time. On Sabbaths
and feast days, someone in each

synagogue read a Scripture from both


the Law (Torah) and the prophets.
After the reading from the prophets
(called the Haftarah), the congregation repeated four benedictions. The
third benediction featured a prayer
for Elijahs return and the restoration
of the kingdom of David. Every Jew
was thus intimately familiar with
this oft-repeated Malachitext.
Intertestamental Thought
Between the writing of the Old
and New Testaments, many writings record the theological reflections of Jews during this intertestamental period. Among the ruins
of the Qumran community, which
overlooks the Dead Sea, archaeologists have found many documents
that recorded a variety of first-century Jewish speculations about the
Messiah and end times. Although
these writings are neither canonical
nor God-inspired, they do reflect the
thoughts many Jews held in Jesus
time about the coming Messiah and
Hisforerunner.2
The Qumran writings present a variety of speculations about
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

79

Below: The Carmel


Mountain Range in
the distancewhere
Elijah confronted
prophets of Baal.

Right: Grove that


is likely site of
Naboths vineyard
as seen from atop
Tel Jezreel.

80 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

In the New Testament


The New Testament interacts multiple times with the expectations about
Elijahs return and the Messiahs
coming. In the most commonly held
expectation, Elijah would return
before the Messiah, heralding His
coming (Mal.3:1; 4:46). The disciples
reported the Jewish scribes belief
that Elijah must come first before
the Messiah, and that Elijah would
restore everything (Matt.17:10-11).
The New Testament describes John
the Baptist as fulfilling the prophecy
that Elijah would reconcile fathers
and sons, bring peace to the land,
and prepare the way for the coming
Messiah (Luke1:1617; see Mal.4:46;
Isa.40:3). John the Baptist ministered in the spirit and power of
Elijah (Luke1:17). Elijah and John
the Baptist had some similarities in
attire (2Kings1:8; Mark1:6), teaching, and mission. In announcing to

Zechariah the birth of his son John


(Luke1:1617), the angel Gabriel
explicitly identified John as the
fulfillment of the Elijah role from
Malachi4:46.
Jesus had little confidence that
most people would interpret these
prophecies properly. He sometimes
warned the disciples not to tell others He was the Messiah, perhaps
because the Jews had misconceptions
about the Messiah and His mission
(Mark8:2930)such as His being
merely an anointed earthly king who
would lead the Jews to victory over
the Romans (John6:15; 18:36; 19:12).
Regarding Elijahs return, Jesus said
clearly that the Jewish religious leaders didnt recognize Elijah upon his
return (speaking of John the Baptist),
and did whatever they pleased to
him (Matt.17:1213). Jesus specifically identified John the Baptist as this
Elijah-like forerunner (Matt.11:714;

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/52/26)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/24/7)

eschatology. They present at least


three distinguishable roles and
terms associated with the Messiah:
(1)a prophet and forerunner of
the Messiah, (2)a priest, and (3)a
Davidic prince or king. The specific descriptions of these three roles
vary widely. Some scholars believe
the different roles represent two or
three different persons, while others
believe the Messiah is a composite
figure who plays all three roles of
prophet, priest, andking.
Elijah and Moses were the persons most associated with the roles
of eschatological prophet and priest.
Most intertestamental writers identified Elijah as the prophet and
Moses as the priest. However, some
Qumran writers identify Elijah as
the eschatological priest (since he did
priestly functions like anoint kings
and offer sacrifices), and Moses as
the eschatological prophet (since the
Jews considered him the first prophet). Some writers thought two or
three different messiahs would usher
in the end of time. In some later
rabbinic writings, the role of Elijah
transitioned from being a forerunner
prophet to being virtually equal to
the Davidic messiah. They believed
the eschatological Elijah would guide
students of Scripture to truth, restore
the people of Israel, and bring about
the resurrection of the dead (as had
Elijah during hisministry).

Right: Platform in
the distance marks
the site where,
according to tradition, Elijah ascended in the chariot. In
the distance and off
to the west is the
Jordan River Valley.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS MUSEUM OF ANKARA (26/25/5)

Below: Basalt
relief depicting a
two-person warrior chariot running over enemy,
from a war scene;
dated 950850
B.C. Found at
Carchemish.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (38/1051)

17:1213). John the Baptist fulfilling


the prophesied return of one like
Elijah also lends credence to Jesus
death and resurrection fulfilling the
prophecies of a Davidic Messiah
(Mark9:1213).
John himself denied he was literally Elijah reincarnated, but did
affirm that he fulfilled the Elijah-like
forerunner role as Isaiah prophesied
(Luke 3:15-17; see Isa.40:3). John also
denied being the Messiah, pointing
out Jesus as the Messiah instead
(John1:69,1937).
The Elijah figure was so prevalent in the Jewish mind-set that
some associated Jesus with the
Elijah role. Jesus disciples reported
that some people had this perception (Mark8:28). Likewise, Herods
advisers reported that many people
thought Jesus was Elijah or John the
Baptist risen from the dead, because

of the miracles He did


(6:1415). When Jesus
cried out on the cross
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? some bystanders thought He was
calling for Elijahs help
(15:3436), not realizing
that Jesus was quoting
Psalm22:1.
Elijah and Moses met
Jesus in the transfiguration (Mark9:29).3 This
encounter stressed that
Jesus is the unique Son
of God, whose authority exceeds
even that of the law (Moses) and
the prophets (Elijah).4 Perhaps at
least in part because of Elijahs and
Moses unusual departures from this
world and Elijahs association with
resurrection, Jesus discussed with
them His own departure through the
cross and resurrection in Jerusalem
(Luke9:3031). Seeing Elijah led the
disciples to ask Jesus questions about
Elijahs role in eschatology, inquiring
if the scribes teaching was that the
returning Elijah must come first
before the Messiah (Matt.17:10).
Jesus confirmed that Elijah would be
a forerunner of the Messiah and that
John the Baptist fulfilled the type
of Elijah. Some Christian interpreters also believe the two witnesses
in Revelation11:3-6 refer to Elijah
(with his capacity to deny rain)
andMoses.

After King Herod had imprisoned him, John the Baptist sought
Jesus assurance that He was truly
the Messiah. Jesus provided the
evidence that He met the criteria
in Isaiah61:15 and Psalm146:59 of
preaching to the poor, bringing sight
to the blind, and raising the dead
(Matt.11:25; Luke7:22). Clearly,
Jesus was the Davidic Messiah of
Old Testamentprophesies.
The question Jesus asked His
disciples, Who do you say that I
am? (Mark8:29), may be the most
important question in human history. Simon Peter answered rightly, You are the Messiah! (v.29).
For us, the question remains. Who
do you say Jesus is?
I
1. All Scripture quotations are from the Holman
Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).
2. J. Julius Scott Jr., Jewish Backgrounds of the New
Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), 318-19.
3. At the transfiguration, Peter suggested building
three booths to honor Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. At this
event, the Father also spoke aloud and instructed the
disciples to listen to Jesus. Peter had wanted to honor
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus as equals. The voice, in contrast,
singles out the Son. Darrell L. Bock, Jesus According to
Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 235.
4. Donald A. Hagner, The New Testament: A Historical
and Theological Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2012), 173.

Steve W. Lemke is provost and professor of philosophy and ethics at


New Orleans Baptist Theological
Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana,
the director of the Baptist Center
for Theology and Ministry, and
editor of The Journal for Baptist
Theology and Ministry.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

81

ETB: 1 John 1:1-4

fe owship
A stone relief of
the Lords Supper.
The period is not
identified, however the arches in
the relief appear
to be Byzantine in
style.

82 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KEN TOUCHTON (3/9/16)

A WORD STUDY

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/10/64)

N THE NEW TESTAMENT THE WORD


fellowship describes believers mutual partnership
or union with God and with one another. Paul
most frequently used the Greek word koinonia to signify fellowship. The word means to have something
in common, to share something with someone, or to be
a partner in something or with someone.1
In the early centuries of the Christian Era, fellowship referred to business partnerships, friendships,
clubs, marriages, and joint undertakings in civic life.
Christians used the word koinonia to express the union
between God and fellow Christians, all bound together
by a common purpose, namely the spread of the gospel
and growth in Christlikeness.2
Acts2:42 shows the common, or shared, life of the
early Christian community as they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the
breaking of bread, and to the prayers.3 The fellowship
described in Acts2:42 went much deeper than ordinary friendship. So strong was their fellowship
that they sold their possessions and property
and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone
had a need(v.45).
Some of the images in the Bible that describe
fellowship among believers include Gods
coworkers (1Cor.3:9), the household of faith
(Gal.6:10), Gods household (Eph.2:19), and
every family in heaven and on earth(3:15).
First John gives the basis for fellowship (see
1John1:3,7). The text explains that through their common faith in Jesus work on the cross, believers have
been brought into a personal and vital relationship with
God. Because believers have been brought into Gods
family, they enjoy fellowship with the Father and the
Son. In addition, believers also enjoy fellowship with
one another.4
Thus, Christian fellowship features both vertical
and horizontal dimensions. Vertically, believers share
an intimate union with God and with His Son, Jesus
(see v.3). Horizontally, believers share Jesus love and
their partnership in the gospel with fellow believers
(see vv.1,7;Phil.1:5).
First John1:3 states that believers have fellowship,
a strong term conveying the idea of enjoying this fellowship, not just stating the fact of it. Ones fellowship
with God is not lived in isolation but is shared with
all believers. The horizontal and vertical dimensions
of fellowship imply that when one is not in fellowship
with God, he or she is also not in fellowship with other

Right: A young
Arab farmer, carrying a supply of
seed in the bottom
part of his long
shirt, sows the
rocky ground near
Bethlehem. An
older Arab farmer,
possibly the young
mans father, prepares the field with
a simple plow and
double-yoked team
of donkeys.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KEN TOUCHTON (2/6/3)

BY GARY HARDIN

Below: Terra-cotta
contract written in
Elamite script and
dated to about 600
B.C. details the
work of 3 people
who were responsible for shearing 48
sheep; from Susa.
A fellowship
could be a business
partnership.

Christian fellowship features both


vertical and horizontal dimensions.
believers. Likewise, when one is not in fellowship with
other believers, he or she is not in fellowship with God.5
The New Testament gives some guidelines for
enhancing fellowship. Love fellow believers as Christ
loved you (John13:3435; 15:12). Cultivate humility in
your life, and honor the other person (Phil.2:35). Help
carry one anothers burdens (Gal.6:2). Share your
material blessings with Christian brothers and sisters in
need (2Cor.9:13). Hurt with those who hurt, and rejoice
with those who rejoice (Rom.12:15; 1Cor.12:26). Pray for
fellow believers without ceasing (Eph.6:18). Gently
restore believers caught in wrongdoing (Gal.6:1).6
Genuine fellowship with other believers results in
mutual love (John 13:34), the sharing of a common
faith (Titus1:4), and the sharing of a common salvation (Jude3). A growing fellowship with God and fellow believers is a goal of the Christian life (1John1:3).
The dominant mark of fellowship is love (1Thess.4:9;
1Pet.1:22).
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

83

The apostle Paul sometimes used the word koinonia


for the responsibility of believers to share material
things with one another. In Romans15:2526, Paul
had in mind the relief offering for the poor among
the saints in Jerusalem. In 2Corinthians8:4, Paul
referred to this offering as sharing in the ministry to
the saints. In 2Corinthians9:13, Paul challenged the
Corinthian church to show generosity in sharing
with the needy believers in Jerusalem. In Galatians6:6,
Paul encouraged Christians to share materially with
Christian teachers.
Christians have been called into fellowship with
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1Cor.1:9). Because of
their fellowship with the Father and the Son, followers
of Jesus share a partnership in the gospel (Phil.1:5),
share a partnership in Gods grace (v.7), share in the
future glory about to be revealed (1Peter5:1), and
share in the divine nature (2Pet.1:4). The believers
fellowship will be perfected forever when he or she sees
the Savior face to face (1Cor.13:12; Rev.21:3).
Observances of the Lords Supper provide a picture of this fellowship with the Father and the Son
84 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ KRISTEN HILLER (48/3537)

Beggar on the
street outside
the Church of the
Annunciation at
Nazareth. Sharing
ones blessings
with those in need
is part of the
believers responsibility.

(1Cor.10:16). This communion with the Father and the


Son during the Lords Supper should result in fellowship with other believers (v.17). Might these truths be
the reason Paul became angry when the Corinthians
abused their observances of the Lords Supper? Instead
of growing in their fellowship with one another, the
Corinthian Christians ignored the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ and created infighting, discord,
and divisions in the church (11:1722).7
Believers not only share fellowship with the Father
and the Son, but also with the Holy Spirit (2Cor.13:13).
What, then, is the Holy Spirits role in fellowship? He
binds believers in fellowship (Eph.4:3). In this binding
of believers, no person is insignificant; and all believers
have been endowed with spiritual gifts for the edification of the church body (1Cor.12:411). The Holy Spirit
also sustains fellowship (Phil.2:1).
The New Testament reminds believers that fellowship with Jesus Christ also includes identification
with the sufferings of Christ (Phil.3:10; Col.1:24).
Sometimes believers may have to suffer with fellow
believers (1Cor.12:26).
Negatively, Paul taught that partnership with unbelievers is incompatible with the fellowship of believers (2Cor.6:1416). Paul said we cannot share in the
Lords table and the table of demons at the same time
(1Cor.10:21). Christians must not participate in the
fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them
(Eph.5:11). Neither should Christians fellowship with
those who live contrary to Jesus teachings nor with
those who profess to know Christ but who participate
in sexual immorality, drunkenness, idolatry, or thievery
(2John911; 1Cor.5:11).8
Fellowship today is more than potluck meals at
church. Believers share together their common life in
Christ. This unique sharing, or partnership, is not an
option but is a way of life for Christs followers.
I
1. Fellowship, Communion in A Theological Word Book of the Bible, ed. Alan
Richardson (New York: Macmillan, 1950),81.
2. Wendell Willis, Fellowship in The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, gen. ed. Paul J.
Achtemeier (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996),460.
3. All Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).
4. Bruce A. Demarest, Fellowship in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, gen. ed.
Walter A. Elwell, vol.2 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997),789.
5. David Walls and Max Anders, I & II Peter, I, II, & III John, Jude, vol.11 in Holman
New Testament Commentary (Nashville: Holman Reference, 1999),156; Curtis Vaughan,
1,2,3 John: A Study Guide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970),23.
6. Demarest, Fellowship,78990.
7. Bradley Chance, Fellowship in Holman Bible Dictionary, gen. ed. Trent C. Butler
(Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991),48283.
8. W. H. Johnson, Fellowship in The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, gen. ed.
MerrillC. Tenney (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009),2:567.

Gary Hardin is a retired pastor living in Centre,


Alabama.

TGP: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 9:6-15

The Krenides
stream is located
about a mile
from ancient
Philippi; many
believe this to be
the location where
Paul baptized
Lydia.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/41/85)

THE CHURCHES OF

MACEDONIA
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

85

86 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

that must have been operating before


his arrival (1Thess.1:78). Thus the
gospel probably arrived some 15years
or so before Paul came to the region in
or abouta.d.50.3
That Acts should remain silent
on when the gospel first arrived in
Macedonia should not surprise us.
Luke, following the leadership of the
Spirit, likely intended to heighten

AN ENDURING EMBLEM
The 16-pointed
Vergina Sun was a
popular ornamentation for ancient
Greeks. (Shown
left is a bronze
medallion with the
emblem.) Although
opinions vary,
many believe the
symbol represents
the four elements
of earth, air, water,
and fire plus the
12 Olympian gods.
As Macedonia
grew in power, its
people increasingly

adopted this as a
national symbol. In
the 1970s, archaeologists working in
Vergina, Greece,
found the symbol on a golden
coffin in a royal
tomb belonging to
PhilipII of Macedon,
Alexander the
Greats father.
A variant of the
emblem is on the
current flag for
the Republic of
Macedonia (also
shown left).

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL (35/41/40)

HE MODERN REPUBLIC
of Macedonia, founded in
1991, is a quaint tourist attraction, but hardly the strategic area of
yesteryear.1 Established in 146b.c.,
the senatorial province of Macedonia
was a landmass bridging the mainland Italian peninsula with the Asian
continent. Macedonia took in most of
the land between the coastline of the
western Aegean and the southeastern
coast where the Mediterranean and
the Adriatic meet. This access to the
three largest bodies of water, coupled
with the east-west Ignatian Way,
insured its importance to the Roman
state. Fittingly, Macedonia, which was
also the fountainhead for Hellenistic
culture and language, received the
gospel in the tongue that it had given
to the world, KoineGreek.
While most argue that the gospel arrived when Paul set foot on
Macedonian soil, history indicates that
it may have preceded him. Acts2:511

mentions pilgrims from Rome and


Asian provinces present on the Day of
Pentecost, but somewhat astonishingly, Macedonians are conspicuous by
their absence. Given that Jews lived in
Macedonia (Acts17:1,10), surely many
would have been thereand some
would have been converted.2 In his
first epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul
so much as acknowledged churches

ISTOCK PHOTOS

BY RUDY GONZLEZ

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DR. WILLIAM TOLAR (23/1/69)

Right: In
Thessalonica the
Galerius Arch
stretched across
the ancient
Ignatian Way.
Completed in
about A.D.305,
the arch celebrated the Emperor
Galeriuss victory
over the Persians
in A.D.298.

ISTOCK PHOTO

Below: Roman
aureus, gold,
minted at Cyzicus;
obverse depicts
a cuirassed and
draped bust,
right, of Emperor
Diocletian (reigned
A.D. 284305).

the
importance of Pauls
response to the
vision of the Man from Macedonia
(Acts16:610). Paul crossed the
Aegean by divine guidance, bringing
with him onto the European continent his unique apostolicimprint.4
PhilippiArriving in Macedonia,
Paul traveled along the Ignatian Way,
which took him to Philippi.5 There
he reached out to a few Jews and
some Gentile God-fearers. However,
his work in freeing a young girl
from demonic activity earned him
a beating and landed him and Silas
in the local jail (vv.1624). The next
day the authorities set them free;
but, upon learning of Pauls Roman
citizenship, they feared for having
mistreated him and urged him to
depart (vv.3539). We know that
Paul returned to Philippi on later
Left: Ruins at
Philippi. In the
bottom right corner is a portion of
the Ignatian Way.
The open area
to the left is the

forum. Rising in
the background
are the massive
remains from a
Christian basilica
built in the 6th
cent.

While most argue that the gospel


arrived when Paul set foot on
Macedonian soil, history indicates
that it may have preceded him.
occasions (20:6; 2Cor.2:13) and the
Philippian church never lost touch
with him (Phil.4:2,15). In the second
century, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna,
wrote to the Philippians acknowledging their interest in Eusebius, whom
they may have met as he was taken to
his martyrdom in Rome.6
ThessalonicaAfter a brief stay in
the home of Lydia, Pauls first convert from the province (Acts16:40),
Paul continued westward and
arrived at the provincial capital of
Thessalonica. There he had great success with Jews, God-fearing Gentiles,
and some leading women of the city
(17:24). Unlike Philippi where the
Jews met for Sabbath prayers along
the riverbank, Pauls work centered
on the local synagogue. However,
jealous over his success, the Jews

instigated a mob action against him.


Again, Paul and company were taken
before the local authorities, accused
of upsetting the world (These
men who have turned the world
upside down; v.6, hcsb), implying sedition. But the city council
found no evidence of it and released
them. Fearing further hostility from
the Jews, Paul was whisked away to
safety that samenight.
Pauls two letters to the
Thessalonians reveal his frustration
for having left prematurely. While
both letters deal with a number of
issues, their focus on last things
is beyond dispute. Pauls first epistle shows that some in the church
were wondering if they had missed
out on the Lords return, a theme
Paul touched on at the end of every
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

87

M
chapter (1Thess.1:10; 2:1920; 3:13;
4:1517; 5:23). Paul comforted their
concerns by detailing the signs that
would precede the gathering of the
church to the Lord (4:135:11).
In 2Thessalonians, Paul corrected a false impression; some
believers thought continued hostility from the locals meant they were
experiencing the day of Gods wrath
(2Thess.1:312). Paul explained that
such could not happen before the
coming of a future apostasy, the
removal of some restraining factor, and the revelation of the lawless one (2:312). The Thessalonian
Below:
Overlooking
modern Berea.
The ancient city
became part of
the Roman Empire
in 148B.C. Romes
General Pompey
trained his armies

here at one point.


When Paul came
to the city and
spoke in the synagogue, the people
were responsive
and even eager to
hear his message
about Christ.

88 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

N
DO

IA

Philippi Neapolis

Amphipolis
Pella Thessalonica

Vergina

Apollonia
Berea

Aegean Sea
church wrestled
with the nature and
timing of the last
days in the context of tribulation, something
the church would
continue to experience.7 Early in
the fourth century, Emperor
Diocletian began his Great
Persecutions, resulting in
a number of Thessalonian
Christianmartyrs.8
BereaThe third Macedonian
city Paul visited was Berea
(Acts17:1014). Unlike Philippi and
Thessalonica, which were along
the Ignatian Way, Berea was to the
south. Did Paul abandon plans to

Athens

continue westward for the sake of


evading Jewish hostility? As was
his practice, Paul went to the local
synagogue and found many of the
Jews along with prominent Greek

Troas

left for battle


and entrusted his
son with ruling
Macedonia in his
absence. In time
Alexander became
an accomplished
military leader,
never losing a
single battle. After
his fathers death,
Alexander became
king of Macedonia
and expanded the
empire extensively. He reigned 336323B.C., until his
death at age 32.

Right: Bust of
Alexander the
Great. When
Alexander was
16, his father,
Macedonias
King PhilipII,

men and women to be noble and


receptive. But again, Pauls stay in
Berea was short-lived. Jews from
Thessalonica came and agitated
the local population against him,
forcing the apostle to abandon the
province alltogether.9
Overall, the New Testament
reveals that Macedonian authorities
were at least tolerant of Pauls work,
never seeing it as a real threat to the
state. The fact that he could show
Roman citizenship likely also helped
his cause. And with respect to the mission, Macedonian churches continued
faithful in the midst of local persecution, often instigated by the orthodox Jewish communities (Phil.1:29;
3:23). To their credit, these churches
both gave sacrificially (Rom.15:26;

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ LOUISE KOHL SMITH (32/19/2)

ILLUSTRATOR MAP/ LINDEN ARTISTS/ LONDON


ALEXANDER: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ ACROPOLIS MUSEUM/ ATHENS (35/32/95)
BEREA: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (11/15/19)

Right: The Aegean


coast at Troas.
Antigonus I
Monopthalmus
founded the
town in 310B.C.
and named
it Antigonia,
after himself.
Macedonias
King Lysimachus
killed Antigonus
in 301B.C. and
renamed the
town Alexandria
in honor of
Alexander the
Great. Because of
its close proximity
to ancient Troy,
the town was nicknamed Alexandria
Troas, which
was later shortened to Troas.
Because of its
location near
the Straight
of Hellespont,
Troas became
one of the most
important cities
of the Empire.

2Cor.8:16) and provided


Paul with strong co-laborers for the mission (Acts
19:29; 20:4; 27:2).10 Though
the apostle made much of
his self support (1Cor.9:1115;
1Thess.2:9; 2Thess.3:89),
Paul personally benefited from
their material generosity as well
(2Cor.11:9; Phil.4:10,18).
It was not simply that Paul
crossed into Macedonia to start
the work there. The vision that
captured Paul at Troas may well have
been of a tall and slender Macedonian
believer earnestly urging him to
come and help (Acts16:9) by giving the work already there his unique
and authoritative apostolic seal.11 In
light of this and despite a tradition
that Onesimus was the first bishop of
Berea,12 believers today may be astonished to learn that no record exists
showing Macedonian Christians ever
playing a leading role for the growth
of the church in the centuries that
followed Pauls ministrythere.13 I

3. Dimitris J. Kyrtatas, Early Christianity in Macedonia


in Brills Companion to Ancient Macedon Studies in
Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 BC300 AD,
ed. Robin J. Lane Fox (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill,
2011),586.
4. Note evidences of Pauls self-understanding. Thus,
while the church at Rome clearly predated his arrival,
Paul could still assert his unique apostolic role of establishing the church (Rom. 1:11; 15:2024). Likewise, in
Romans 15:2628 we read that Paul will put his seal on
the offering the Macedonians had sent to Jerusalem.
5. See James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the
New Testament Era (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1999),28184.
6. Polycarp, To the Philippians13.2.
7. For added analysis see Kendall H. Easley, Paul and
the Thessalonians, Biblical Illustrator 35, no. 2 (Winter
2008-09):4346.
8. G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Christian Persecutions,
Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
2006),3578.
9. Paul continued south to Athens and Corinth, both
cities of the province of Achaia (Acts17:1518:1).
10. However, Demas, who deserted the work, may have
been from Thessalonica (2Tim.4:10).
11. In Titus 3:12, Paul urges his Gentile protg to meet
him at Nicopolis, which some take to be the city of that
name in the region of Thrace to the northeast. This view is
based on a note found at the end of Pauls letter to Titus
in the King James Bible. The note reads, It was written to
Titus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Cretans,
from Nicopolis of Macedonia. However, Nicopolis of
Epirus southwest of Macedonia seems to be a better fit.
More significantly, if this is the Nicopolis where Paul hoped
to spend a winter, it adds support to the view that Paul
actually ministered in Greece, an aspect of his ministry not
mentioned in Acts.
12. See Constitutions of the Holy Apostles7.46; 8.47.82.
13. F.
F. Bruce, Macedonia in The Anchor Bible
Dictionary , ed. in chief David Noel Freedman (New York:
Doubleday, 1992), 4:454-57.

1. Macedonia, from the Greek meaning length or


slender, possibly referring to the height and build of its
people. See Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of
Greek II (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010),894.
2. For the archeological evidence of Jewish synagogues in Macedonia see Asher Ovadiah, Ancient Jewish
Communities in Macedonia and Thrace in Hellenic and
Jewish Arts: Interaction, Tradition and Renewal, ed. Asher
Ovadiah (Jerusalem: Tel Aviv University, 1998),18598.

Rudy Gonzlez is dean of the


William R. Marshall Center for
Theological Studies and professor
of New Testament at Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary,
campus at San Antonio, Texas.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

89

Scrolls,
Books& Seals

ISTOCK PHOTO

BY E. RANDOLPH RICHARDS

ISTOCK PHOTO

ETB: Revelation 5:1-14

90 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

PAPYRUS CUTTER: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/23/10)


THOTH: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ LOUVRE MUSEUM (35/22/89)

Scrolls and Books


In New Testament times, scrolls were made of parchment or papyrus. Parchment sheets were sewn together. Papyrus sheets were joined by gluing, overlapping
the last inch of the sheet over the left edge of the next
sheet. Although persons could theoretically make
scrolls any length by continuing to sew or glue more
sheets, ancients recognized that any length beyond
about 30feet was unwieldy. Papyrus was
sold in a standard roll, a charta, 20 sheets
long, making a roll about 10inches tall
and 12feet long. This sold for about four
denars (or nearly $500).3 Seneca (lived ca. 4b.c.
a.d.65), who wrote letters at the same time as Paul,
argued such a roll would fill the readers left hand.4
What did he mean? People wrote in columns about
five inches wide (about 35characters), starting on the
left end of the roll. The next column was to the right
and so on, down the length of the scroll, holding about
24columns. As one read a document, he unrolled with
his right hand and rolled with his left, leaving the
column he was reading open inbetween.5
Seals
When a document was finished, it was rolled
up.6 It was then folded double (to keep out
prying eyes) and a string was tied around
it. Sometimes a blob of clay or wax was
pressed over the knot. Once hardened, the
knot could not be untied nor the document
opened without crumbing the clay or wax.
For added security, a seal imprint could be
pressed into the clay or wax. The recipient would recognize the seal imprint7 and
know the document had not been opened.
Revelation5 is referring to an imprinted
clay or wax seal that covered the knot
and marked the document as genuine
andunopened.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/G.B. HOWELL/CHICAGO FIELD MUSEUM (35/58/9)

O, ANCIENT BOOKS WERENT


books? my bewildered freshman Bible student asked. His confusion is easy to understand. Revelation5:1 states in the Greek that the One
on the throne had in His right hand a biblion. The King
James Version translates it book, which is accurate;
but in antiquity, books were scrolls. Thus, newer English
translations will use the word scroll.1 This helps modern readers to understand its shape, but it could mislead
us to think this was something unusual. A scroll was the
ordinary word (and format) forabook.2

Top: The papyrus


plant is a perennial
that is native along
the Nile. Egyptians
used the plant for
a writing surface
and for making
sandals, baskets,

and even boats.


Above: Bronze
papyrus cutter
with a decorative
handle in the form
of a duck head.

Below: The
Egyptians credited
the god Thoth
with the invention
of writing.

Most commentators make a passing remark about the


seven seals, either viewing it as the symbolic number
seven, perhaps indicating the fullness of Gods will, or
explaining that it marked the document as legal.
Likely the number was intending to invoke a more
common image, that of a legal will or testament.8 The most ancient form of a Roman will
was either one filed with the Roman government or a document sealed with the signets of
seven witnesses.9 This second, more everyday
method required that when a person made a will,
the spoken words were recorded in the presence of five witnesses plus a libripens (like an
executor) and the familiae emptor (the heir10).
These last two also functioned as witnesses.
Each person would individually seal the will,
attesting it as genuine. Distributing the
inheritance required the presence of the
document plus the seven witnesses. Each
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

91

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Jeremiah, who
ministered about
626-584 B.C.
Left: Discovered
at Khirbet Qeiyafa

witness would presumably verify that a particular seal was


his and genuine, break his seal, and then untie his string.
Then the next witness would step forward to do the same.
Revelation5 is likely using the common image of the
opening of a valid will, in this case the disposition of creation. At first no one worthy is found to open the seals,
meaning they were not an original witness. No creature in
heaven was present when this will was made; it was before
creation. Then we see the Lamb. He alone had been present and all the seals belong to Him, making Him executor
and heir as well. This is yet another image describing how
Gods plan for Jesus to inherit all was set beforecreation.
Although the image of a will was common, the image in
Revelation5:1 of a book written front and back was most
unusual. For parchment, the hair-side of the leather was
darker and less desirable for writing and was considered the
back of the sheet. For papyrus, the side with the strips
vertical was harder to write across and was considered the
back of the sheet. Scrolls were written on the inside. This
part of the vision was likely intending to show how very full
and rich the inheritance was. It would not fit on a normal
scroll without writing on the front and theback.
I
1. Technically the English noun is a roll and the verb is scroll. Thus, we scroll a roll. Early
in the computer age, users referred to scrolling the page, somewhat like one would scroll
a roll. In popular language, though, we refer to the roll as a scroll, and we roll up a scroll,
to the dismay of English language purists.
2. The format of book we use today, with a binding and pages, was called in antiquity a codex
(plural, codices). The form arose from the older practice of using wax tablets. Two, three, five (or
occasionally more) tablets were stacked together and tied on one side, resembling our modern
book form. But in the Bible, the term book meant a scroll and not a codex. In 2Timothy4:13,
where Paul told Timothy to bring the books and parchments, the books were scrolls and the
parchments were likely notebooks in the codex format; see E. Randolph Richards, The Codex
and the Early Collection of Pauls Letters in Bulletin for Biblical Research8 (1998):15166.
3. According to Pliny the Elder, writing a generation before the New Testament,
papyrus sheets came in multiple sizes from Augusta sheets which were 13 digits wide
(about 10 inches) to emporetica sheets which were 6 digits wide (nearly 5 inches);
Natural History13.11. Or see E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004),16169.
4. Seneca, Epistle 45.13 in Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, vol. 4 in Seneca in Ten
Volumes, The Loeb Classical Library, trans. Richard M. Gummere (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Univ. Press, 1979), 299.
5. Modern images often incorrectly show a scroll being read as if it were one column
wide and twelve feet long.
6. In the case of letters (which were usually one sheet long), the letter was often folded

92 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

in central Israel,
this soapstone
seal has an incense
burner with a scarab above in the
center; a maat

feather and a stylized cobra are on


either side.
Above: Egyptian
scroll with a seal.

Below: Library
from the old
Sumerian citystates; dates
30002350 B.C.,
Early Bronze Age.

accordion-style instead of rolled. A long book, like a full roll, would not necessarily be folded.
7. In English the word seal can be a verb, as in to seal a document, and a noun, as in the
seal on the document. Worse, the noun can refer both to the impression and also the device
to make the impression. So a king can seal a document with a wax seal made with his royal seal.
8. This would be the first image to occur to the reader. Of course, the Revelation will
also make use of the symbolic imagery of seven.
9. Gaius, The Institutes of Gaius2.147 (A.D.161). The practice was established by the
Lex Cornelia (81-80 B.C.) and was also mentioned by Cicero (Ver. 2.1.117).
10. The executor holds the ceremonial scale of balance and the heir fictitiously
buys the family; Gaius, The Institutes of Gaius2.102-104.

E. Randolph Richards is dean of the School of Ministry


and professor of biblical studies at Palm Beach Atlantic
University, West Palm Beach, Florida.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ MUSEUM OF THE ANCIENT ORIENT/ ISTANBUL (12/32/11)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE/ SOUTHERN


ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY/ CHATTANOOGA, TN (72/9327)

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ DAVID ROGERS/ UNIVERSITY MUSEUM/ UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (299/36)

Upper left: The


seal of Baruch,
whose name
means Blessed.
Baruch was
a scribe for

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL (35/53/60)

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS


Ruins of the
Essene community
at Qumran.
Below: Part of the
Isaiah Scroll from
Qumran.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

VERLOOKING THE
northwest corner of the
Dead Sea, Qumran has
fascinated explorers for well over
100years, beginning with British
surveyors in the 1870s. Three primary roads converged at Qumran.
The first led north to Jericho;
the second, south to Masada and

En-Gedi; and the third, west to


Jerusalem. Excavations at the site
show occupation back to the Iron
Age. Some believe Qumran to be
the site of either the City of Salt
or Secacah of Joshua15:61-62.
A discovery in 1947 made
Qumran one of the most biblically significant archaeological sites
of the twentieth century. Stored
away in 11caves were over 900
scrolls and scroll fragments on
which were written ancient texts.
Among the texts were complete
books and parts of books from the
Old Testament (in fact, all except
Esther), religious writings, and
rules for community living. The
most significant scroll was a complete text of Isaiah. This Isaiah
scroll measures about 81/2 inches
high and over 24 feet long. Some
fragments, though, were quite
small, the size of a postage stamp
orthumbnail.

Evidence indicates an obscure


Jewish sect, the Essenes, who lived
during the time of Christ, lived
at Qumran and copied the texts.
Scholars surmise that when the
Jewish revolt against the Romans
began in a.d.66, the Essenes protected their texts by storing them
in terra-cotta jars, which they
placed in caves nearQumran.
The Qumran documents were
roughly 9001,200 years older than
the previously oldest-known Old
Testament textstexts scholars
had used when translating the
Bible. Amazingly, comparisons
show the texts to be virtually
identicalin spite of the roughly
1,000-year span separatingthem.
The similarity proves that
through the centuries, those who
copied the Bible did so with amazing precision. Thus, we can rely on
the Bibles we read today as having
come from accuratetexts.
I

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

93

BSFL: Joshua 3:3-17

Jordan
The

HE TIME HAD COME


for the Israelites to enter
and possess the land God
had promised them. The spies had
returned from Jericho with their
favorable report. Joshuas task now
was to prepare the people to cross
the last barrier and to begin possessing the promised land. As He
had with Moses, God spoke to
Joshua and gave him specific directions about what was to happen.
Following the Lords instructions,
Joshua had the people gather provisions and prepare for the crossing.
He also instructed the people that,
upon seeing the 12 Levitical priests
carrying the ark, they were to break
camp, consecrate themselves, and
follow the priests into the Jordans
springtimefloodwaters.
We can hardly imagine the
peoples high emotions. Leaving
Egypt under the leadership of
Moses was a departure for them.
The 40years passing through the
wilderness was a time for them
to enter into covenant with their
God. It was an experience of training, a preparation for an entirely
new lifestyle. But crossing the
Jordan River was the arrival connected to the departure from Egypt
and the wilderness experience. The

94 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

River

the source of numerous folk songs


and hymns.

peoples crossing was a crucial


step in God fulfilling His promise
to Abraham and the patriarchs
hundreds of years earlier. So the
thrilling climax of all that had
happened thus far was now before
them. They were about to cross
over the Jordan River, the last
obstacle between them and the
promisedland.
But what do we know about the
Jordan River? What makes it different from other rivers, especially
when compared to such historic
watercourses as the Amazon, the
longest river in South America;
the Mississippi, at more than
2,300miles long in North America;
and the Nile, spanning about
4,130miles across the African continent? Yet, even though it is much
smaller, the Jordan has geographical, historical, and spiritual significance that has endeared it to
many civilizations and cultures. It
has captured the hearts and
minds of biblical historians and poets
and
has
b e e n

The Birth of a River


We think of the birth of a nation, of
a city, even a villagebut the birth
of a river? An overview of the
geographical history of the Jordan
River highlights its uniqueness
among the worlds rivers. The headwaters of the Jordan gush from the
rocks at the foot of Mount Hermon
in northern Israel, about 1,000feet
above sea level. These rocks are
part of a limestone ridge so porous
that melted snow from the mountains heights seeps through to its
base. Four rivers actually come
together and form the source of
the Jordan Riverthe Banias, the
el-Leddan, the Hasbani, and
the Bareighit. The Jordan
then courses through
the Huleh basin
and empties
into

Right: The Jordan


River as it flows
through central
Israel.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ MIKE RUTHERFORD (59/2173)

By David L. Jenkins

SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

95

2 Hasbani River

Banias River 1

Bareighit River

el-Leddan River
1. The Banias Falls
and River form one
of the headwaters
of the Jordan River.

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES MCLEMORE (13/38/3)

Lake
Huleh

2. The Hasbani is
one of the four rivers that combine
to form the Jordan
River.
3. The Jabbok River
enters the Jordan
from the east, about
15 miles north of
the Dead Sea.

Sea of
Galilee

4. Bell tower and


Orthodox church

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (8/27/5)

Jordan River

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRENT BRUCE (60/8056)

PUBLIC DOMAIN

mu

r
Ya

ve
Ri

r
ive
R
3
k
bo

Jab

4
5
Dead
Sea

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (8/6/12)

96 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

dedicated to John
the Baptist at
Bethany Beyond the
Jordan, which is east
of the Jordan River
and in the country
of Jordan. The
church commemorates two major
events that occurred
in this area, Elijahs
ascension and Jesus
baptism.
5. Jordan Valley
near Mount Nebo;
the Dead Sea is
visible in the in the
distance.

the Sea of Galilee, the worlds lowest freshwater lake, 696feet below
sea level.1 The Jordan River thus
flows from Mount Hermon in
the far north to the Dead Sea in
the south. The distance between
Lake Huleh and the Dead Sea is
about 75miles, although the rivers
twisting route is approximately
200miles.
One of the most memorable Old
Testament scenes is that of Moses
standing on Mount Nebo and viewing the promised land to which he
was denied entrance. On a clear
day, one can stand there and see
the sparkling snows atop Mount
Hermon to the north, and follow
the Jordan River on its meandering
route south through the Rift Valley,
until its final entrance into the
Dead Sea to the south. Then, to the
far west, lies the Mediterranean,
the western boundary of the promised land. The northern part of
this valley through which the river
flows is fertile, but the southern
end, approaching the Dead Sea,
is arid desert. Between these two
points, however, areas of dense forestation grow along the riverbank.
The Yarmuk and Jabbok Rivers
are the two main tributaries of the
Jordan, joining it from the east.
Several smaller tributaries dry up
during the hotsummers.
Leaving the southern end of
the Sea of Galilee, again at about
696feet below sea level, the Jordan
River continues southward until it
enters the Dead Sea at almost 1,300
feet below sea level.2 Thus, in spite
of its twisting course, the Jordan
follows a continually plunging
journey from its lofty beginning
at Mount Hermon to its arrival
at the Dead Sea, the lowest point
on earth (on land). The dramatic
drop certainly helps explain the
rivers Hebrew name, ha-yarden,
translated, thedescender.

The Importance of the Jordan


As it descends to the south, the
Jordan River passes through
three significant stages. The river
flows almost seven miles from
its source at Mount Hermon,
traveling through a marshland
of reeds, bulrushes, and papyrus,
before reaching Lake Huleh. As
the river leaves Lake Huleh, it
flows about 10 miles to the Sea of
Galilee. Upon leaving the Sea of
Galilee and on its way to the Dead
Sea, the Jordan passes through a
fertileregion.3
First-time travelers to Israel are
commonly amazed at the striking
changes in the terrain within the
boundaries of such a small country. The countryside is filled with
lemon and orange groves, with
banana trees also producing their
luscious fruit. Then, not many
miles to the south, one encounters bleak stretches of desert and
stark, jutting limestone hills.
There, nomadic shepherds herd
their sheep and goats in search
of sparse grasslands and limited
watersources.
Memorable Events
Not only does the Jordan River play
a significant role in the geographical history of Israel, it was the
site of several outstanding events
in both Old and New Testament
times. Those that stand out to us
include the parting between Elijah
and Elisha at the Jordan River,
when Elijah struck the water with
his mantle, causing the waters to
divide so that the two of them
walked across on dry ground. As
they walked along, a chariot of
fire came from the heavens, separating them; Elijah was taken by
a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha
took Elijahs mantle that had fallen
from him and returned to the banks
of the Jordan where he struck the

water and cried out, Where is the


Lord God of Elijah?4 after which
the waters again divided and he
passed over(2Kings2:814). And
who can forget the dramatic story
of Naaman, the commander of
the Syrian army, who, stricken by
leprosy, was told by the prophet
Elisha to dip himself seven times
in the Jordan, and he would receive
cleansing from his leprosy (5:10)?
The ministry of John the
Baptist, heralding the coming of
Jesus, centered around the Jordan
River, in whose waters he reluctantly obeyed his Lord and baptized Jesus (Matt.3:1315). While
the major part of Jesus ministry
was around the Sea of Galilee, the
second phase of His work focused
on the west side of the Jordan,
where He performed miracles
and taught the people with many
parables (seeLuke1219:27).
Concluding this look at the
Jordan River, we return to Joshuas
challenge to his people as they stood
on the banks of the Jordan. Joshua
told them to follow the priests who
bore the ark. As the priests entered
the Jordan, the waters divided so
that they stood with the ark on
dry ground until the entire nation
had finished crossing the Jordan
(Josh.3:17). Here is a challenge
to all of us to follow those spiritual leaders who faithfully guide
us in paths of righteousness for
the glory of ourLord.
I
1. Joseph L. Gardener, ed., Readers Digest Atlas of
the Bible (Pleasantville, NY: Readers Digest Association,
1981),40.
2. Ibid.; Philip Lee, Jordan River in Holman Illustrated
Bible Dictionary, gen. ed. Chad Brand, Charles Draper,
and Archie England (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers,
2003), 946.
3. Philip Lee, Jordan River, 946.
4. Quotation is part of verse 14. All Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible
(HCSB).

David L. Jenkins is a retired pastor


living in Gilmer, Texas.
SUMMER 2015 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR

97

Selected previous articles that support lessons


for this quarter are listed according to curriculum series and date. Titles in italics are in the
Summer 2015 Biblical Illustrator Bundle, available
at www.lifeway.com/biblicalillustrator.
W-Winter Sp-Spring Su-Summer F-Fall
To access the online Biblical Illustrator index, go
to www.lifeway.com/biblicalillustrator and click
on the link for the complete index of articles
BIBLE STUDIES FOR LIFE
JUNE 7Be Strong and Courageous Sp00; Joshua:
The New Leader F93; Joshua: A Man on Mission
W90; Ancient Lebanon Sp89; The Jordan
River Sp89
JUNE 14The Peoples of Canaan Su12; The Ark
of the Covenant in Joshuas Time F01; Joshua:
The New Leader F93; Joshua: A Man on
Mission W90; The Jordan River Sp89
JUNE 21From Slaves to Soldiers F06; The Ark
of the Covenant in Joshuas Time F01; Jericho:
That Ancient City F01; Joshuas Conquest of the
Land Sp00
JUNE 28Israel as Tribes Su12; Ai F06; The
Levites W01-02; The Levites W90
JULY 5The Peoples of Canaan Su12; Shiloh:
Its Historical and Symbolic Significance Sp05; A
History of Shiloh Su96; Reuben, Gad, and East
Manasseh Su81
JULY 12Who Were the Amorites? Su07; Joshuas
History Recital F01; The Gods Before the Flood
W90; Shechem W88; The Gods on the Floods
Other Side Su77
JULY 19The Book of Jonah in its Historical
Setting Su09; Gods Message for Nineveh W0304; Sackcloth and Fasting in Jonah F02; Jonah:
His Life and Times F99; Ancient Nineveh W96
JULY 26Ephesus, A Historical Survey Sp08;
Lampstands in Revelation F04; The Cities
of Revelation 13 W99-00; Who Were the
Nicolaitans? W99-00; The Churches Around
Ephesus F79
AUGUST 2Nehemiah: A Historical Setting
Sp09; Nehemiahs Life in the Palace Sp09; The
Persian Empire W06-07
AUGUST 9Ezra, Scribe and Priest W06-07;
Postexilic Hebrew Worship Practices W06-07;
The Levites W01-02
AUGUST 16Poverty and Wealth in the Early
Church F03; Barnabas: Son of Encouragement
Sp03; The First-Century Church & Poverty
W98-99

98 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SUMMER 2015

AUGUST 23Fasting in the First Century W0809; Barnabas and Pauls Missionary Journey
F00; The Church at Antioch of Syria Sp95; The
Laying on of Hands Sp89

AUGUST 30Thrones as Symbols of Authority


Su08; A New Heaven and a New Earth Su08;
The Seas as Divine Imagery F04; Johns Use of
Alpha & Omega Sp00

AUGUST 30First-Century Marriage Customs in


Israel W99-00; Lukes Use of Kingdom F90;
Feasting: First-Century Practices W87

THE GOSPEL PROJECT

EXPLORE THE BIBLE


JUNE 7Light in Johns Writings Su09;
Fellowship: The Meaning W99-00; Johns Use
of Witness W99-00; The Purpose & Life
Situation of Johns Letters W99-00
JUNE 14Love in Johns Writings Su11; Abide
in Johns First Epistle Su09; Propitiation A
Word Study Sp04; Abide: The Meaning W9900; Fellowship: The Meaning W99-00
JUNE 21Love in Johns Writings Su11; Abide
in Johns First Epistle Su09; The World as a
New Testament Concept W08-09; Abide: The
Meaning W99-00; Christ and the Kosmos
Su98
JUNE 28Spirit in Johns Writings F10;
Gnosticism W97-98; My Little Children Su93;
Gnosticism F82
JULY 5Savior: A Word Study W14-15; Love
in Johns Writings Su11; Propitiation A Word
Study Sp04
JULY 12The Word Word in the First Century
W11-12; Love in Johns Writings Su11; Spirit
in Johns Writings F10; Faith Affirmed W97-98;
Temptation W97-98
JULY 19Seven in the Book of Revelation Sp14;
Johns Use of Alpha & Omega Sp00; Alpha and
Omega Sp92
JULY 26White Raiment in Revelation F14;
Thrones as Symbols of Authority Su08; The
Cities of Revelation 13 W99-00
AUGUST 2White Raiment in Revelation F14;
Seven in the Book of Revelation Sp14; Crowns:
Their Significance and Symbolism Sp13; Thrones
as Symbols of Authority Su08
AUGUST 9Angels as Heralds of God W08-09;
Thrones as Symbols of Authority Su08; Worthy:
The Meaning Su03; Of Seals and Scrolls Su96
AUGUST 16Crowns: Their Significance and
Symbolism Sp13; Horses: Their Use in the
First Century F09; The Trumpet in the New
Testament W97; Of Seals and Scrolls Su96;
Chariots W89; Seals and Scrolls Sp81
AUGUST 23 Angels as Heralds of God W0809; The Heavenly Host F99; Michael in Jewish
History Su95; The Beast and the Dragon:
Historical Interpretations Sp82

JUNE 7The Heart: A Hebrew Understanding


F09; The Word: A Description F09; The Heart
in Old Testament Theology W01-02; Statutes,
Commandments, Judgments, and Testimonies F92
JUNE 14With a Voice of Singing: Hymns in
the Early Church Sp07; You Have Heard It
Said Jewish Laws Behind Jesus Teachings F07;
Christology in Colossians Su00; Laws Behind
Jesus Teaching W96; The Roman Mile Su84
JUNE 21Cana in the First Century F13;
Winemaking in Ancient Israel F11; Wine in FirstCentury Israel F02; Cana in Galilee W00-01;
First-Century Jewish Marriage Customs F86
JUNE 28Boundary Markers Su08; The
Proverbs: Their Structure and Form Su08;
Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible W03-04; Moses
Family W0102; The Nature of the Hebrew
Psalms Su89; The Nile Sp88
JULY 5Philemon in Its Cultural Setting Sp11;
The Messiah: Jewish Concepts in the First Century
F09; Paul, the Letter Writer Su06; Apocalyptic
Literature Su05; Letters from Prison Su00
JULY 12Love in Johns Writings Su11; Jamess
Ethical Imperatives Su09; The Law of Freedom
W0102; The Love of God Su90
JULY 19Our FatherJesus Prayer Practices
& Instructions W13-14; God as Heavenly
Father W88; The Kingdom of Heaven W88;
Forgiveness Su86
JULY 26Evil: The Meaning Sp01; Hosting a
Friend Su91; God as Heavenly Father W88;
Parables in the Ancient World W83
AUGUST 2The Work of the Holy Spirit: A
Biblical Overview Su12; Paul, the Prisoner F10;
First-Century Armor Su05
AUGUST 9Sackcloth and Fasting in Jonah F02;
Fasting in the First Century W08-09; Gods
Message for Nineveh W03-04
AUGUST 16Hospitality in the First Century
F14; To Practice Hospitality W05-06; Early
Christian Hospitality Su98; City Gates Sp88
AUGUST 23A Cheerful Giver Sp14; Pauls
Stewardship Principles Sp14; Titus and the
Corinthians W03-04
AUGUST 30Not Ashamed: Why It Mattered
W14-15; Worship in the Ancient Church Sp10;
To Be Bold F00

EVERY STORY CASTS HIS SHADOW.

CH RO N O LO G ICAL

Journey through the storyline of Scripture.

A chronological, Christ-centered Bible study for Kids, Students, and Adults.


Preview one month free at gospelproject.com.

The Bible Studies for Life curriculum will


explore how to build your life on Gods promises and how to impact the world (looking
at the Book of Daniel). In support of these
studies, next quarters Biblical Illustrator will
include these articles and more:
Who Was Belshazzar?
At the Right Hand
Wise Men from the East
Shown top is a carved scene on an
eighth-century Anglo-Saxon whale-bone
box. The scene depicts the wise men
visiting Jesus.
The Gospel Project curriculum will look at
God both as Creator and Covenant-Maker
in the Book of Genesis. In support of these
studies, next quarters Biblical Illustrator
will include these articles and more:
Birthrights in the Ancient World
The gods of Corinth
Serpents in Scripture

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/26/6)

COMING NEXT QUARTER

ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (19/32/16)

B I B L I C A L

Shown center is Pauls Bay at Malta. While


Paul was on the island of Malta, a poisonous
snake bit his hand.
The Explore the Bible curriculum will study
the Book of Genesis. In support of these
studies, next quarters Biblical Illustrator
will include these articles and more:
Evil: The Meaning
The Angel of the Lord
The Significance of Ancient Towers

WWW.LIFEWAY.COM

Shown bottom is an artists rendering of a ziggurat. Ancient


peoples believed gods descended the steps to bring blessings
to the city below.

SUMMER 2015

USA $7.95
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