Gospel Parables

Convocation Address at Bethel University, August 29, 2016 about recent troubles in Minnesota, particularly the shooting of Philando Castille, and our responsibility as followers of the Gospel. There is an audio link also available. After you click the link, it's the first one in the queue; fast-forward to 15:00:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/2016-2017-chapel-college-arts/id1148681753?mt=10

The article looks at the divine drama from a new angle, shedding light on the third person of the Godhead.

Keywords: Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, Satan, the devil, Job, Adam, Horus, divine twins, Trinity, trinitarianism, analogy, Thomas Aquinas.

The art program of Abbot Suger at the monastery of Saint-Denis in the mid-twelfth century has long been credited with the reintroduction of “allegory” into Western European visual art after centuries of disuse.  While such sweeping claims can no longer be considered to be the case in regard to the exegetical level of allegory per se, Suger’s program does very much seem to be the principal initial source of a new elite art–at first in the very public claims of an exegetically based monumental art “accessible only to the litterati,” that is, understandable only to the spiritually literate choir monk, and then, later, in the widespread use of a more or less similar art by a segment of the newly emerging urban class on the basis of a certain participation in religious literary culture.

In this study, I show how Suger invented a new exegetical art that, in its complexity, claimed to function on the same level as scriptural study and so claimed to be acceptable in the context of the current controversy over monastic art spearheaded by Bernard of Clairvaux, in which art was seen by some as a spiritual distraction to the monk.  I show how Suger’s claims were based on the traditional dichotomy of the uninitiate (the layperson) and the initiate (the monk), but how this two-level spiritual hierarchy was contradicted by new thought on the use of art and the senses in the form of a three-level spiritual hierarchy that excluded the users of such art from the highest level.  I consider what this can tell us not only about the works of art at Saint-Denis but also about the nature of visual art in this crucible of intellectual and artistic activity–monasticism–during a remarkable period of artistic change by relating differing understandings of this three-level hierarchy to a representative spectrum of contemporary monastic images.  I demonstrate the presence of Hugh of Saint Victor or his thought in the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit panel of the so-called Allegorical Window and so, to whatever degree, in the window program in general.  And I argue that this new systematized and fully exegetical art appeared first not at Saint-Denis around fifteen to twenty years before the consecration of the east end of Suger’s new church in the highly successful large-scale image of The Mystic Ark, painted at Saint Victor in Paris around 1125 to 1130, although Saint-Denis remains the principal source for its eventual widespread employment in Western European artistic culture.

Unintended by Suger, however, the special potential of his particular conception of a fully exegetical, monumental, publicly accessible, and systematically deployed work of art in the medium of the stained glass window gradually became apparent beyond the highly circumscribed confines of monastic culture in the emergence of a new elite art for the literate lay user–as seen, for example, in the Good Samaritan Window of Chartres Cathedral.  These new exegetical stained glass windows acted as both vehicles and even sites of “textual communities,” that is, a voluntary association based not upon the ability to read, although some members were literate, but upon the ability to interpret a text recognized as authoritative that forms the basis of a shared belief.  The social dynamics of twelfth-century France were changing dramatically and the increasingly better educated public, no longer content to remain at the lowest level of the spiritual hierarchy, wanted to participate more actively in the acquisition of elite spiritual knowledge.  In borrowing this strongly literarily and exegetically based art for religious exercises, this aspect of lay spirituality grew out of monastic spirituality, and both Suger and Hugh took part–however indirectly–in the construction of a new elite art for the properly literate and the spiritually literate lay person, an essentially new form of visual art that would become a fundamental part of artistic culture in the West for centuries to come.

I investigate what the consequences of this particular reintroduction of exegesis were at this time of great demographic transformation.  I suggest that, in the early and mid twelfth century, the relatively restricted elite images such as the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit panel were beyond the intellectual understanding of the uninitiate in the two-level hierarchy of the initiate and the uninitiate and so tended to affirm the social distinction between the two groups and thus reinforce the social structure because the uninitiate would have recognized that the monks knew the meaning of these images even if they did not. However, with the increasing lay literacy of the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, the case with the new elite public art of the same time–even if it were seen as operating in the three-level spiritual hierarchy–seems to be quite different.  For the relatively public, new elite images such as the Good Samaritan Window of Chartres with their textual communities would seem to have contributed to the social transformation of medieval society in that, at least in the beginning, they would have challenged the centuries-old monopoly on literacy of the various wings of the Church and so played a part, however small, in the visible emergence of the literate new urban elite, broadly understood. At the same time, they would have intensified the distinction between this literate new urban elite and what might be called the illiterate lower class–both of them formerly conceived of as forming the same social group.  In this way, far from reinforcing the current social structure, works of art like these would seem to have contributed to the dynamic of change that pervaded contemporary society.

Finally, I ask what the invention of the exegetical stained glass window at Saint-Denis, one of the most original art programs of Western culture, reveals about the nature of originality in the twelfth century. And I reconsider the roles of Suger and, now, Hugh in the invention of the exegetical stained glass window and in the construction of a new elite art more broadly speaking.

Capítulo de investigación publicado en el libro "Jesús Histórico: Aproximaciones Temáticas". ISBN: 978-958-716-731-3. Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2015.
Mc 4,11-12, a pesar de ser una clara alusión a Is 6,9-10, es considerado uno de los textos más complejos del segundo Evangelio, e incluso, según la opinión de algunos, de todo el Nuevo Testamento, cuánto más cuando varios exégetas sostienen que el Jesús histórico pudo haber usado la sentencia isaiana para explicar el propósito de su enseñanza parabólica y cuando el múltiple testimonio de esta se extiende más allá de la tradición sinóptica (Mt 13,10-15; Lc 8,9-10) llegando hasta el corpus paulino (Rm 11,7b-8), el cuarto Evangelio (Jn 12,39b-40) y la segunda parte de la obra lucana (Hch 28,26b-27). Las palabras de Jesús –además de evocar un aparente determinismo histórico y una sentencia judicial de carácter punitivo y excluyente sobre un colectivo actancial cuya identificación puede resultar “oscura”– llevan a suponer que hay dos realidades en las cuales el ser humano se puede ubicar en relación con el Reino de Dios: o se está “adentro” o se está “afuera”. El misterio del Reino es “dado” a los que “están adentro”, pero para aquellos que están “afuera” todo acerca de Jesús y su ministerio resulta ser como un enigma o una paradoja incomprensible que los conduce a un estado de ceguera ontológica. Al ser así, ¿podría Jesús enseñar de tal manera que sus oyentes no fueran capaces de mirar, comprender, arrepentirse y ser perdonados? ¿Cuál puede ser el sentido de tal expresión en el marco textual de la “parábola de la siembra” y en el contexto histórico de su entorno redaccional?

In this paper, I see the five different stained-glass window series at Canterbury Cathedral as part of a larger single depiction of the history of salvation, into which the monks inserted themselves in a complex way, one that attempted to hold on to a past form of status, the elite spiritual status of a two-level spiritual hierarchy consisting of the initiate (the monk) and the uninitiate (the layperson)--something in part asserted through the Parabolic Discourse Window--while claiming to participate in a new three-level form, one that accepted an intermediate level for the literate lay person.  At the same time, I show how these windows might actually have been read on the basis of a unique survival: the Canterbury Roll, a text I maintain was used by the monks' assistants to guide illiterate or "spiritually illiterate" pilgrims (those who might be able to read but who had not attained the monk's level of spiritual literacy) through the Latin inscriptions and so through the content of the windows.  However, I also maintain that the monks used the Canterbury Roll as a control device, through which this seeming access to the exclusive knowledge of the windows asserted rather than mitigated the old two-level spiritual hierarchy by intellectually processing, as it were, the information for the pilgrims in a way that upheld the monks' privileged social position.

This article examines the parable of the loyal and wise slave in Q 12:42-46 by considering the ancient institution of agricultural slavery. Particular attention will be given to the managers of ancient slave-run farms, who were at times also slaves themselves. Methodologically, each verse of the parable will be read against the background of the ancient institution of agricultural slavery. The aim is not to interpret the metaphorical meaning of the parable, but merely to contextualise and illuminate its literal meaning.

In his influential 1987 monograph, Kloppenborg identified three layers in the Sayings Gospel Q: the ‘formative stratum’ (or Q¹), the ‘main redaction’ (or Q²), and the ‘final recension’ (or Q³). He ascribed the cluster of sayings in Q 12:39-59 to the main redaction. This cluster is introduced by the saying about the Son of Man coming like a robber (Q 12:39-40). In my view, however, Kloppenborg’s attribution of Q 12:39 to Q’s redactional layer rests on flimsy foundations. It will presently be argued that only the Son of Man saying (Q 12:40) belongs to the main redaction, while the saying about the robber (Q 12:39) belongs to the formative stratum. In the process, a novel reading of the robber saying will be exposed.

In his influential 1987 monograph, Kloppenborg identified three layers in the Sayings Gospel Q: the ‘formative stratum’ (or Q¹), the ‘main redaction’ (or Q²), and the ‘final recension’ (or Q³). He ascribed the cluster of sayings in Q 12:39–59 to the main redaction. Within this cluster appears the parable of the loyal and wise slave (Q 12:42–46). In my view, some portions of this parable actually originate with the formative stratum. The aim of the current article is to reconsider the redactional make-up of this parable by appealing to Kloppenborg’s own criteria for distinguishing between Q1 and Q2, including those of ‘characteristic forms’, ‘characteristic motifs’ and ‘implied audience’.

This publication argues for the existence of a seam between verses 44 and 45 of the parable in Q 12:42–46. In the process, a case is also made for identifying the second half of the parable (Q 12:45–46) as a redactional addition to a more original first half (Q 12:42–44). The arguments that make up this article form the basis for a follow-up article on the redaction of Q 12:42–46 within the context of the Sayings Gospel as a whole.

"In attempting to recover the original significance of the parables, one thing above all becomes evident: it is that all the parables of Jesus compel his hearer to come to a decision about his person and  mission." -- Joachim Jeremias


Secrets of the Kingdom revealed
The recognition of an eschatology, that is in the process of realization, for they are all full of the 'secret of the Kingdom of God.  The hour of fulfillment is come, that is the urgent note that sounds through them all. "The strong man is disarmed, the forces of evil are in retreat, the physician comes to the sick, the lepers are cleansed, the great debt is wiped out, the lost sheep is brought home. The door of the Father's house stands open, the poor and the beggars are summoned to the banquet, a master whose kindness is undeserved pays his wages in full, a great joy fills all hearts. God's acceptable time has come. For the savior has been manifested whose veiled glory shines through every word and through every PARABLE."-- J.  Jeremias

Emanuel redemptive joy
God will rejoice when among the many righteous is revealed a despised sinner upon whom He may pronounce absolution, no more, it will bring him even greater joy. "Such is the character of Emanuel; it is his good pleasure that the lost could be redeemed, since they are His; their wanderings have caused him pain, so he rejoices over their come back home. It is the redemptive joy of the Father, of whom Jesus implies, the joy in forgiving. This is Jesus defense of the Gospel, contemplates J. Jeremias; "Because God's mercy is so infinite that his intense joy is in forgiving,"  just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.(Matt 20:28)

Jesus Parabolic Actions
Jesus did not confine himself to voiced parables, but initiated performing  parabolic  actions in the Universe and Church (Ecclesia). "His most significant parabolic action was his extension of hospitality to the outcasts (Matthew, Zaccaeus) and their reception into his company, "Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them'.”Even in the close circle of his disciples,"As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him." Mark 2:14. these feasts for publicans are prophetic signs, more significant than words.

On the night before his death, he seized the occasion of the common meal to perform the last symbolic undertaking of his ministry, by offering his own life in sharing the atoning potency of the death that awaited him. Jesus established ever new ways of the advent of the Messianic age proclaiming it by his last act, by the healing, by the rejection of fasting by the wedding guests (Mark 2:19) while the bridegroom is with them, and by bestowing on Simon bar Jona the new name of Kepha, denominating him the setting stone of the eschatological Temple of God's revelation (Matt 16:17), of which the building had now begun. He expressed his sovereignty as Lord of the eschatological people of God.

He gave symbolic expression to his royal authority in his kingly entry into Jerusalem and his cleaning of the temple, both of which acts are inseparably connected as a symbol of the coming of the New Age; characterizing the peaceful purpose of his mission by his preference of an ass on which to make his entry. He rebuked disciples ambition by setting a child in their midst, and washed their feet to set an example of the love that stooped to serve. If we assume that the 'pericope adultera rests on early tradition, then the writing in the sand is another example of parabolic action. it would have reminded her accusers, without openly putting them to shame.

The weeping over Jerusalem can also be represented among the symbolic actions, as a prophetic demonstrations of sorrow over its approaching fate. The overwhelming  number of Jesus symbolic actions serve in proclaiming the fulfillment of last things (in the end times, as the Messianic Age has arrived. That implies that the  symbolic actions are kerygmatic actions;  they show  that Jesus not only proclaimed the message of the parables, but that he lived it and embodied it in his own person. "Jesus not only utters the message of the kingdom of God, he himself is the message."  Here is the quiet proclamation that the Messianic Age is here, the age of forgiveness.

Messianic Covenant of Forgiveness
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—... But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says  the  Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more." -- Jeremiah 31: 31-34

This article reflects on a possible methodology that can be used to interpret the parables of Jesus preserved in the Synoptics (and the Gospel of Thomas). It is argued that the available versions of the parables of Jesus have already been allegorized, and that this should be taken into consideration when the extant versions of parables are interpreted as parables of the historical Jesus. The
parables should also, as far as possible, be interpreted against the social realia evoked by the parables. In this endeavor, Roman-Egypt inscriptions and papyri are in most cases the only
sources available. The article concludes with a few examples, illustrating the possibilities of interpretation when the proposed methodology is applied.

Dụ ngôn trong Tân Ước không chỉ là một thể văn của Hy Lạp hay Lã Mã như được dịch từ chữ παραβολή (parabolê) nghĩa là “thả dọc theo”, chỉ việc đặt một cái gì cạnh một cái khác để so sánh, mà sâu xa hơn nó có nguồn gốc và hình thức như các mashal trong Cựu Ước, nghĩa là “tương tự như”, chỉ về rất nhiều dạng thức văn chương và vượt ra ngoài παραβολή. Như thế, dụ ngôn là một thể văn đa dạng và tùy vào những tiêu chí cấu thành, mà mỗi trường phái có thể có những định nghĩa khác nhau về nó. Ví dụ, C.H. Dodd nhắm đến chất liệu của dụ ngôn: Dụ ngôn là một ẩn dụ hay một ví von được rút ra từ thiên nhiên hay đời sống chung, thu hút người nghe bằng sự sinh động và kỳ lạ của nó. Còn B.B. Scott thì chú ý đến mục đích của dụ ngôn: Dụ ngôn là dùng một chuyện hư cấu ngắn để qui chiếu đến một biểu tượng siêu việt. Theo con, điều quan trọng hơn cả của các dụ ngôn là ở chính tác giả của chúng: Chúa Giêsu. Như Kinh Thánh viết: “Đức Giêsu dùng dụ ngôn mà nói với đám đông; và Người không nói gì với họ mà không dùng dụ ngôn” (Mt 13,34). Như thế, có thể định nghĩa dụ ngôn Tân Ước đơn giản là những câu chuyện do Chúa Giêsu kể trong sứ vụ giảng dạy của mình.