Kerkbode skryf:
(http://www.facebook.com/kerkbode/posts/332613553490260)
Mens kan nie die Nuwe Testament sonder die Oue verstaan nie:
“In my quest to learn the “Gospel Language,” I have often been oblivious to the shared experience assumed by the biblical writers. Jesus and his earliest followers were Jews; they held in their collective memory a particular story of a particular people, loaded with mutually understood points of reference. When I’ve read the New Testament only dimly aware of the symbolic world of the Old Testament, I’ve barely skimmed the surface of an ocean of meaning.”
In on the Joke of the Bible | Christianity Today
Carolyn Arends [ posted 7/2/2012 10:22AM ]
My kids finally saw The Princess Bride, a movie their dad and I have loved since our college days. There is something wonderful about watching your favorite people watch one of your favorite films. In this case, the added bonus was observing the light come into their eyes as they discovered the origin of several quirky things their parents routinely say. “Hey!” they shouted with a shock of recognition when Westley first said, “As you wish”—a line they’ve heard their father utter hundreds of times. Vizzini’s “Inconceivable!” produced a similar response. By the time we got to the ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size), our kids were grinning with the particular delight of cracking a previously mystifying code. They were in on the joke, and they liked it.
Language is much more than grammar and syntax. It is layer upon layer of collective memory and shared meaning, so that simple phrases like, “Houston, we have a problem,” “Et tu, Brute?,” “Remember the Alamo,” or even “Yada, yada, yada” can carry worlds of meaning. You can’t master a dialect without also learning the culture in which it is embedded.
In my quest to learn the “Gospel Language,” I have often been oblivious to the shared experience assumed by the biblical writers. Jesus and his earliest followers were Jews; they held in their collective memory a particular story of a particular people, loaded with mutually understood points of reference. When I’ve read the New Testament only dimly aware of the symbolic world of the Old Testament, I’ve barely skimmed the surface of an ocean of meaning.
You can’t master a dialect without also learning the culture in which it is embedded.
Certainly, I’ve grasped that Jesus’ choice of 12 disciples has something to do with Yahweh’s calling of the 12 tribes of Israel. But until recently, I remained oblivious to the way his baptism and desert temptation evoke the foundational story of the Israelite Exodus through Red Sea waters and into the wilderness. I’ve been duly impressed with the Lord’s ability to command the stormy waters to be still (Matt. 8:26-27), but I’ve missed the Israelite shock at this man from Nazareth doing something that, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, only Yahweh can do. And although I’ve understood some of the significance of Jesus’ transfiguration right before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, I’ve forgotten that the Israelites had been waiting since the Exile for the Shekinah—the visible glory of the Lord—to return.
Maybe the most significant reference I’ve missed has to do with Jesus’ final words on the cross. That awful cry—My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?—has haunted my struggle to understand exactly what transpired (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Was Jesus, for a devastating moment, utterly alone and without hope? How that cry is processed has all sorts of implications for theology—not least for the way we conceive of the Atonement and of the relationality of God’s triunity. More personally, it shapes the way I perceive my own experiences of abandonment.
I’ve known, in a vague way, that with his cry Jesus was quoting the beginning of Psalm 22, a passage so familiar to his friends that to utter the first line would have been tantamount to reciting the entire thing. Psalm 22 is an anguished prayer of David, spoken as a godly sufferer awaiting deliverance. It’s the most frequently quoted Psalm in the New Testament. And its parallels to the Crucifixion are chilling:
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Charles Lamb, July 04, 2012
Yes, knowledge of the Old Testamant increases ones appreciation that Jesus Christ faithfully taught the new and living way God had planned, that while people thought they were doing right by loving their neighbour and hating their enemies Jesus Christ explained that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, and as his apostle Paul explained we are to find ways of overcoming evil with good. Jesus Christ continues to ask why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say.
REV JAMES SHELDON, July 04, 2012
The key, true statement of this article is “You can’t master a dialect without also learning the culture in which it is embedded.” Or as the cliche goes, “Text without context is pretext. The context of the NT is always the OT. It is impossible to know who Jesus in the gospel is without knowing his presence and promise in biblical history. (BTW – For an irrefutable argument of the need of the Old Testament in order to know Jesus, go to the study that Dr Alber Mohler does on Hebrews 11. You can download the mp3 from his website.) Just compare it to the two chambers of the heart, one which receives the blood, and the other which sends it out in power and life for the body. Both need to be there.
James Brett, July 03, 2012
Fine article. Another (small) point of fullfilled prophesy (OR freak luck)… Pslam 22:12 “Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.” The 10th Legion, the Legion that cruxified Christ, was one of only two legions with something other than eagles on their shield – they had bulls. Julius Ceasar gave them that honor in recognition of their steadfastness. They had recently transfered to Judea from Syria via Bashan. Anyone present at the cruxifiction would have known exactly what Christ was talking about and seen the: 1) highly unlikely coniciendence, or 2) the Lord fullfilling of prophesy. I suggest putting a mustard seed of faith in 2) and acting accordingly. Blessings will happen. At the cruxifion Christ was quoting the first line of a ‘song’ (Ps22)… it would be like a patriot saying “Oh beautiful for spacious skies” just before being hung.
MICHAEL H CONSTANTINE, July 03, 2012
Thanks, Carolyn, for reawakening our hunger for the word of God in both Testaments. As I have been saying, recently, He is not God 2.0 when we get to the NT. He is the unchanging One.
John Townsend, July 02, 2012
Ms Arends is discovering and noting how the Old Testament Scriptures correspond with the New Testament message. The types and prophecies of the OT prophets are fulfilled in Christ Who was prophecie in the Old and revealed in the New. Christ fits us with a new set of spectacles so that we can see the hidden Christ of the OT. Here is a web site that helps mightily in this regard. www.eschatology.org.
Bruce M., July 02, 2012
If you’ll allow me a tangent from the point of this article…I have always found major sections of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament dense and impenetrable. When I read them, my eyes and mind glazed over. I’ve recently discovered that reading them slowly and ALOUD to myself makes all the difference in the world.
Kommentare (op facebook/kerkbode):
Johann Potgieter
Sorry, as ek die Ou Testament moet “verstaan” – veral die Hebreeuwse triomfantelisme en barbarisme van die Torah – om die Nuwe te kan “verstaan” dan wil ek nie een van die twee “verstaan” nie. Ek dink nie die twee goed het veel met mekaar te doen nie, behalwe dat albei antiek-Joods is, en dat die Nuwe bedoel was om die goddeloosheid en wreedheid van die Oue teen te gaan. Toe moes die lewe en leer van Jesus desperaat aangepas word om die Oue te bevestig (kompleet met die Psalm 22-evokasie), na die Romeine die vuilwerk gedoen het. “In on the Joke of the Bible,” inderdaad.
Francois van Tonder
Verstaan?
Henrietta Klaasing
Die titel: “In on the JOKE of the Bible” maak vir my geen sin nie???
Daar word soveel kere in die Nuwe Testament verwys na die OT soos die skrywer self Ps 22 as voorbeeld noem, en dit alleen behoort vir mens te sê dat mens vir ’n behoorlike verstaan van God se Plan, beide dele nodig het
Barend Nel
Sy verduidelik dit mos in die eerste paragraaf van die stuk… hoe haar kinders skielik hul ouers se sêgoed beter verstaan het, toe hulle ’n fliek uit die ouer se jongtyd gekyk het. Daar gebruik sy die uitdrukking dat die kinders toe ervaar het dat hulle ook “in on the joke” was.
Die “urban dictionary” webwerf gee die definise van “in on the joke” as “Knows the secret of something”.
Johan Van Den Heever
Ek wonder soms wat die werklike implikasie is op die geloofslewe van soveel wat deur die halwe Bybel van die Gideons God leer ken het.
Johann Potgieter
Ek worry ook eerder oor die implikasies vir die geloofslewens van diegene onder ons wie se lewens hoofsaaklik gestalte kry uit die halwe Bybel – veral die Torah (en al die mooi gediggies en sentimentele versugtinge wat daarop volg) … Dan kom Jesus, wie/wat Hy ookal was.
Hennie Mouton
Die skryfster verduidelik hoekom sy praat van “In on the joke of”, maar sy het dit moontlik om ander redes ook gedoen. Soos om aandag te trek. En dalk om ongelowiges te betrek, soos skynbaar hier nou gebeur. Maar laasgenoemde wys nie op die kommentare op die oorspronklike artikel nie. Het sy dit verwyder of het sy net geen sulkes gekry nie? Ongelowiges kan ook haar titel maklik misbruik. Gegewe dit alles, dink ek nie dis ’n goeie titel nie, al stem ek met baie van die inhoud saam. Die doel van Kerkbode met hierdie plasing is ook moontlik om ongelowiges te betrek, maar ongelukkig antwoord Kerkbode hulle dan selde na behore.
Hennie Mouton
In die kommentaar op die oorspronklike artikel skryf James Brett die volgende:
Fine article. Another (small) point of fullfilled prophesy (OR freak luck)… Psalm 22:12 “Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.” The 10th Legion, the Legion that crucified Christ, was one of only two legions with something other than eagles on their shield – they had bulls. Julius Ceasar gave them that honor in recognition of their steadfastness. They had recently transfered to Judea from Syria via Bashan. Anyone present at the crucifixion would have known exactly what Christ was talking about and seen the: 1) highly unlikely coincidence, or 2) the Lord fullfilling of prophesy. …
Catherina Hayden