Why on earth should people who are interested in reading the Bible spend so much time studying extra-biblical ancient Near Eastern material?

Alessandro Scafi produced an extremely fascinating book titled, Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth, in which he charted the history of map-making in the western world.  He particularly focused upon the representation of the garden of Eden within medieval maps of the world, mappae mundi, and showed how maps changed through the ages.  I think there are some valuable applications to studying biblical genres that we can make from observing the changes in map-making.

Mappa Mundi from Evesham Abbey, ca. 1390-1415

Notice several features in the map above which are different from modern maps:

• As was typical for mappae mundi, this map is oriented to the East instead of the North
• Paradise was usually located at the far corner of the world, however, (various maps represented Paradise differently but) this map presents “Earthly Paradise” in an inset box that distinguishes it somewhat from the rest of the map.  The map maker wanted to convey the theological message that Paradise was on earth yet humans no longer had access to it.
• Relative distances and shapes of land masses are not accurately represented
• Jerusalem is the center of the world
• Many major cities and other features are not included

So, how do we assess this map?  Is it worthless because it does not accurately represent the geography of the world?

When we interpret and assess mappae mundi we need to understand their genre which includes their intended purpose.  The purpose of these maps was not to guide travelers, in fact, when sailors started using maps as aids for navigation maps changed dramatically (it was at this point that maps changed their orientation to the North, represented geographic features more accurately, etc.).  Instead, these maps were intended to convey theological messages–the relationship between earth and paradise, the effects of the Fall and the exiles to the East, the theological importance of Jerusalem, etc.  If we judged a mappa mundi on the basis of how accurately it represented the actual geography of the world we would be missing its entire point, the reason why it was made in the first place.  It is like this with biblical genres.  Before we interpret a text, any text for that matter, we need to understand its genre and concomitantly the reading expectations that we should bring to it.

Here is another analogy.  This is an old map of the London tube system:

Topological London Tube Map

This map was actually not the first that was produced as a guide for the Tube.  Here is an earlier map:

"Accurate" Tube Map

The latter map provides more accurate relative distances between stops and the actual pathways of the tracks.  However, for a tube rider this map is somewhat confusing.  This is why the former map was produced–it does not represent the relative distances between stops and the lines are drawn in only three ways: horizontally, vertically, and with 45 degree angles.  So, is the topological tube map wrong?  Not really, you see, tube riders only use a map to discern about four bits of data:

• Whether they are on the right line
• Whether they are going in the proper direction
• How many stops until their destination
• Where can they switch lines

A topological map provides all of this data in a clear and easily accessible manner at the expense of an “accurate” geographic representation.  Accordingly, a topological map is perfectly suited for a tube rider, however, if someone were trying make a mashup that overlaid the path of the tube with a Google street map of London a topological map just wouldn’t work.

It is like this with biblical texts–you have to properly understand the purpose and genre of a text or else you will misunderstand or misapply it.  We know this intuitively as we encounter Jesus’ statement, “I am the vine” (John 15:5)–we understand that he was giving a theological statement not a comment on his physical makeup, in other words, this is like a mappa mundi.

But, not all parts of the Bible are as easy to sort out as John 15:5 and that is why looking at cognate texts helps us better understand ancient genre expectations.  Reading cognate texts helps us better understand the purposes and intentions of certain ancient genres, since, like what we see in the difference between medieval and modern maps, ancient conventions can often be quite different from modern ones.  If we apply our modern expectations upon a mappa mundi we make a genre mistake.  Similarly, in many cases, if we apply our modern expectations upon biblical texts we might misapprehend them.  If something as seemingly simple as understanding 600 year old maps is more complicated than we might expect, then how much more complicated is the task of interpreting the Hebrew Bible?

The mark of a good teacher is that he or she spends most of his or her time doing research and writes many books and articles.

The mark of a good researcher is the same as that of a good teacher.¹

tags: sarcasm, painful reality

1. Wendell Berry, “Preface: The Joy of Sales Resistance” in Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, xiii-xiv. [back]

The mortal sin of the academic world is plagiarism, that is, using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own.  During the past few days friends have sent me emails concerning sites that sell Old Testament papers to students (topics include: Messiah in the OT, Women in the OT, and OT Prophecy), Alan Jacobs reflected on plagiarists’ lame excuses, the New York Daily News may have plagiarized a story from the Daily Mail, and the New York Times published a piece on the “blurring lines” of plagiarism among students.

What’s all the fuss about?

We live in a very odd culture that extends ownership rights to non-tangible things like ideas and words.  However, these are relatively modern inventions.  Within the ancient world there was no such thing as “intellectual property” or even “authorship” as we understand it.  Literature was composed not by individuals but by communities–whether these communities were sitting around campfires recounting stories real or fiction or in between or whether the communities were scholars writing for other scholars.  Within the ancient world literature developed over time and subsequent generations of composers used previous work in order to fashion their own accounts.  Hardly any scholar put their name on their work (there are a couple exceptions of acrostic poems which spell out a scribe’s name).

All this fuss about plagiarism has me thinking–are students merely reverting to an ancient view of authorship?

Want to see a teaser of what is in store for my OT class tomorrow?  You can see the video here on my Facebook account.  While you’re there why don’t you friend me if we don’t already know each other.

The Atlantic has a very good article on what makes an effective teacher.  The article comes from observations and data from the Teach for America organization.  The whole article is worth a read but here are some of the highlights:

1. Great teachers tended to set big goals for their students.
2. Great teachers constantly reevaluate what they are doing and radically change things when they are not working.
3. Great teachers make sure everyone understands.
4. Great teachers have interactive classes not just lectures.

Interestingly, this article points out that advanced education in teaching makes no difference in the effectiveness of teachers: “[A] master’s degree in education seems to have no impact on classroom effectiveness.”

I have been meaning to post about some helpful resources: a COS/ANET index (incredibly this was left out of the COS volumes) and an index for the Anchor (Yale) Bible Dictionary including author/translator and title–both of these indexes were compiled by Kevin Edgecomb.  Also, if you are teaching or learning from Alan Ross’s Hebrew grammar, Phillip Marshall has some very helpful answer keys and extra drill sheets and stuff (amazingly, the publisher does not provide answer keys to this grammar).

The Chronicle of Higher Education site has an interesting article entitled, “Choosing and Using Textbooks.”  This article describes some studies that examined how students interacted with “pedagogical features” within textbooks (such as bold face terms, glossaries, outlines, discussion questions, and self-tests).  Sadly, a study of psychology students (presumably undergrads) found that only 27% of the students read the assigned readings before the class period while 70% of them read the readings before the test–which I assume means that 30% didn’t read it at all.

I’d love to do a study like this with my students.  I have a feeling that while not everyone reads my assignments, many of the students do because I structure at least part of many of my sessions along the lines of a seminar instead of a straight lecture–I get the discussion going and then expect the class to join in with their reflections from the readings.  Also, about a quarter of the students’ final grade is participation which specifically includes their activity within the discussions.

Another aspect of the study that I found interesting was that the students read and valued supplemental materials if the professor emphasized them.  At the end of the day if you want the students to read the course materials and truly engage with them I think the instructor has to instill an internal motivation in the student–a passion for the subject–not merely an external motivator of the fear of failing the class.  A couple years ago I wrote a little electronic document for ChangeThis in which I talk about some tips on how to accomplish this and as we go into the summer break and start thinking of our classes next semester (in the spare bits of time in between our feverish efforts to churn out publications) it might be a good thing to think about how we can be even better teachers for the next year.  Any suggestions?

Here is a full list of his publications.  He will surely be missed.

It is a very special occasion when a father has the opportunity to preach at his son’s ordination service.  Richard Hays had this opportunity on March 8 at the ordination of Christopher Hays at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church, La Crescenta, California.  You can read the full text of the sermon here; the following quote is an observation on the scroll in the Book of Revelation that I find very familiar in my own experience:

This scroll, it seems, contains the revelation of God’s hidden designs for all history. So we go to school for years and study Greek and Hebrew, or even Akkadian and Ugaritic, in hopes that we might be deemed prepared and worthy to read that mysterious text. But the seer John is insistent: “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look into it” – not even if they have a Ph.D. in Old Testament. And so he weeps bitterly. You have to understand how frustrating this would be: all those years of study, all this vast erudition – it all comes to nothing. No one is worthy.

And to Chris, I wish you a fruitful and rewarding ministry.

No translation, no matter how good it is, can make these texts familiar or immediately understandable to a modern non-technical reader. One is bound to admit the existence of a cultural barrier which can be – even partially – removed only through a more thorough acquaintance of texts themselves or related documents from the same period…

A literal translation – which would only add linguistic anomalies to the difficulties of the reader – is therefore excluded. On the other hand, an easily readable free translation would not be a much better alternative. A free translation is bound to be to a large extent an interpretation (and as such a subjective one), and modernization which is necessary for readability might mislead an innocent reader, if too widely applied. My translation hopes to be a sort of compromise between these two extremities: sufficiently accurate and illustrative, but not too literal to make the texts unreadable and not too much of an interpretation to make them non-Assyrian.

–Simo Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, xviii.

Sounds like the NRSV translation committee motto: “As literal as possible, as free as necessary…”

Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal
EIS – Eisenbrauns
by Simo Parpola
Eisenbrauns, 2007
2 volumes; xxii + 341, xxxiv + 542 pages, English
Cloth, 8.5 x 11 inches
ISBN: 9781575061399
List Price: $169.00
Your Price: $152.10
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~PARLETTSET