tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1230344530531927799.post2182403883992680565..comments2023-04-28T06:59:37.174-04:00Comments on twoTwentyEight: 120 in an Upper Room on PentecostJoseph Howellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00339898114118904716noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1230344530531927799.post-20822456112497352262015-12-09T21:37:17.674-05:002015-12-09T21:37:17.674-05:00Let's do that, Joe. I have G. K. Beale's w...Let's do that, Joe. I have G. K. Beale's work, but I'm unfamiliar with Perrin and Stein. In general--and I'll just sketch in some things, since I'm presently lecturing for U. of N. in Hawaii and don't have my library and resources at hand except for a UBS Text and a Lexicon--I understand the temple motif to begin with creation in Genesis. Just as a number of A.N.E. cosmogonies were temple texts, I think the creation story in Genesis is as well. The later construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness and Solomon's temple were conceived as earthly copies of some sort of celestial temple. With Yahweh's abandonment of the temple described by Ezekiel, there seems to have been held out the hope of another divine residency, but it never occurred in the post-exilic period. Hence, the 2nd temple carries with it some theological ambiguity, since the divine glory that attended the tabernacle and Solomon's temple did not reappear in Zerubbabel's. There was no ark in the 2nd temple, either.<br /><br />Hence, when John raises the temple motif in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel by saying the Logos "tented" among us and we beheld his "glory", it seems to me that he was suggesting Jesus as temple, at least in the sense of incarnation. That Jesus spoke of himself as the temple (destroy this temple) also seems to point in that direction. This latter point, assuming that even though the Fourth Gospel antedates the debacle in AD 70 and still represents something that Jesus actually said (and was referenced at his trial), seems to anticipate a temple motif that would extend into the early church with the Pauline imagery of Jesus as the cornerstone and believers as the building blocks. Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin tends in this direction, and 1 Peter uses the same imagery, too.<br /><br />So, this is just a sketch of some free-floating ideas, but they are some features of temple imagery that I think may be significant. <br /><br />At the same time, I am uncomfortable with the language of replacement, since it seems to smack of a triumphalism that is largely absent in the apostolic community. At the same time, Jesus predicted the fall of the temple, and for Christians, at least, they could prepare themselves for a period sans temple well before the climactic event.Dan Lewisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1230344530531927799.post-28562271700501935892015-12-09T14:04:52.136-05:002015-12-09T14:04:52.136-05:00Dan: We need to do more study on the notion of &qu...Dan: We need to do more study on the notion of "Jesus as the temple" or "replacement of the temple" as seen in "Jesus the Temple" (Nicholas Perrin). I am not really sold on this argument, although one can see the theology of Hebrews as leaning in this direction. I am more drawn to the analysis of "Jesus, the Temple and the Coming Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13" (Robert H. Stein) and "The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God" (G. K. Beale).<br /><br />I cannot see any scenario in which the "Jesus as temple" reinterpretation could arise BEFORE the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE. Nor can I downplay the "resounding" of temple imagery in Hebrews and John's apocalypse. I might even be persuaded that Hebrews was written in shocked response to the temple's destruction. (I am ambivalent about the Platonizing of the "heavenly sanctuary" in Hebrews.)<br /><br />This role of the temple in Palestinian Jewish Christianity and diaspora Jewish Christianity (with its mission to the larger pagan world) - which may well be the essence of Christianity for all of the first century and possibly well into the second - seems like an important, but open question for both periods before and after the temple's destruction (and maybe down to Bar Kochba's defeat in 135 CE which ended any hope of the temple's restoration).Joseph Howellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1230344530531927799.post-44881406999365729032015-12-07T11:13:22.538-05:002015-12-07T11:13:22.538-05:00Joe, I fully agree with what you've laid out. ...Joe, I fully agree with what you've laid out. I've thought for years that the temple courts were a more likely place for the descent of the Spirit rather than the upper room. Indeed, what Luke says at the end of his gospel tends in this direction also, where he says that after the ascension "they stayed continually at the temple, praising God." It makes sense that they may have spent the nights in the upper room, but the daytimes in the temple. Furthermore, Pentecost becomes a theological extension of the return of the Spirit to the temple as promised by Ezekiel and Malachi, first in the person of Christ himself and then in the living temple of the disciples. It would only be appropriate that this would happen in the temple itself.Dan Lewisnoreply@blogger.com