Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

Yesterday, I got a pleasant suprise when I received a phone call from Daren Wendell. As readers of this blog know, Daren embarked a few months ago on “The Earth Expedition”. At present, he has walked around 1,400 miles, leaving those old pop song lyrics in the dust. An old college (soccer) buddy, Daren is walking around the world to raise awareness and funds for the Blood:Water Mission in Africa. At this point, the Expedition is starting to earn major recognition. You can read Daren's blog, track his progress (his site has an online gps tracker) and interact with him at his site (or Facebook). To visit the site, click the following link: The Earth Expedition .

Today was my last day as the Sr. Minister of the Church where I have been serving for over the last five years. It was an emotion-charged day. A few people offered mini-speeches of remembrances and gratitude for me and still others were teary-eyed and encouraging. In addition to a nice banquet in honor of my family, another emotion-filled event was baptizing a young boy from within the congregation. I had his mom and dad make vows to him; it was a great thing to witness. Today has been an emotionally-wearing day but also a very good day. I really couldn’t have asked for it to end any other way. Below is the sermon I offered. Give it a read as it’s not that long. It’s titled “Farewell Sermon”. (Click on the first page below and the message will open in a pop-out window.)

So, I've been trying my hand at "flash" lately and in just a few minutes, threw together this "Pisteuomen" flashplayer. I thought I'd use it for part 12 of the "Images of Antiquity" series. I've made a number of things in flash but never a "flash player". I just wanted to see what I could do in the course of a few minutes. Not bad, I think.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy hectic. Between packing up to move and taking inventory, we've also had a huge yard sale and are also planning another one for tomorrow. So far, we've sold around $2,000 worth of stuff. Since all the money's going towards the adoption, I hope we can sell a bunch more. I'll be glad when we get the yard sale done and once we get the Penske packed (and unloaded) next Wednesday. Needless to say, the blog posts may be a bit less sophisticated for the next week. We'll see.

With yesterday's post about Gospel performance still fresh on the mind, I was struck by this quote I ran across today: “To the ordinary Greek, festive and ceremonial occasions were the primary constituent of religion; theology came a very bad second.” K.J. Dover, Aristophanic Comedy , Berkeley, University of California Press, 1972, p. 33.

* Note: Subsequent to writing this post in 2008, I have presented several papers/lectures at scholarly conferences advancing these ideas. Please find those papers for further details on this topic. I have suggested in previous posts that The Gospel According to Mark was, in the main, a performance piece. Instead of arguing that it should be viewed from an oral perspective or a textual perspective, my view is that both must be given consideration. At this point in time, it is my position that what we know as Mark’s account, functioned as a type of script. There are clues within the text (e.g. “let the reader understand”, all of the explanations of Hebrew and Aramaic customs and phrases, the many Latinisms, borrowed Greco-Romanisms, etc.) that have led me to this conclusion. There are also contextual factors (e.g. the great emphasis in the ancient world on the theater, drama, comedy, tragedy, etc.) that act as contributors to my conclusions. I take the position that The Gospel Acc...

I’ve recently added Chris Vanallsburg’s Blog, “ Vanallsblog ” to the blogroll. Be sure to give his site a look. One of his posts that I’ve enjoyed so far is " Anything Wrong With Being Agnostic? "

I just saw "Get Smart" yesterday and while I thought the movie was alright, I wasn't incredibly impressed. Usually, when I come out of the theater, I want to talk about what I just watched--not so much, this time. Anyway, I think part of the problem is that Steve Carell is doing way too many movies right now. If he stays at this pace, he's going to lose his "funny" kind of like Jim Carey, Will Ferrell or Ben Stiller have tended to do. I guess there's only so much "funny" one person can have. I just hope that "The Office" doesn't become un-funny because of this. Anyway, while "Get Smart" has a few good one-liners and a couple humorous scenes, it's not Carell's greatest. What I did like about it, though it had a few sexual inuendos, was that for the most part, it was clean. I'm just glad Carell isn't getting too raunchy. I really liked "Dan In Real Life"; it was a wholesome film that I'd watch...

Here's one reason (click the picture to start the brief video):

Below are some statistics from my own study of the first chapter of Mark's Gospel. Of course, this is one of sixteen chapters, so, it's only part of the picture-hence the lack of commentary on all of the details. Still, I have included a few thoughts on a number of items I found interesting in the course of my data gathering. · 433 Words (repeats are not counted as separate words, however, derivatives are) · 20 Most Used Terms (mostly connectives, conjunctions or pronouns—makes it clear that this is a narrative): 1. και (76) 2. εις (15) 3. εν (15) 4. αυτου (13) 5. ο (12) 6. την (12) 7. ευθυς (11) 8. αυτον (10) 9. αυτω (10) 10. τον (9) 11. του (8) 12. ην (7) 13. η (6) 14. προς (6) 15. τη (6) 16. το (6) 17. τω (6) 18. της (5) 19. λεγων (5) 20. δε (5) · No words that begin with “ksee”, “rho” or “psi” · 142 Nouns · 82 Pronouns · 30 Adjectives · 101 Verbs · 27 Adverbs (majority coming after 1.15) · 94 Articles · 61 Prepositions It is clear from the above elements that Mark is tellin...

A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those “aha” moments while reading through Mk. 13. I have argued in a previous post that there is no validity to referring to that chapter as apocalyptic (much less “the little apocalypse”). I argued in that same post that it is errant to read Mk. 13 as an eschatological treatise as well—that is, if by “eschatological” one is referring to the “end times” or the Second Coming of Christ, etc. A close, sensible contextual reading of Mk. 13 rules out any of the above readings (I realized this when, in a Bible study I was leading, one of a few recovering backwoods Dispensationalists said: “Michael, any person with a lick of sense or a shred of reading ability can see that this [Mk. 13] is not about the end of the world but about the Temple’s destruction in Jerusalem). I must say, a straightforward reading of Mk. 13 is one that results in understanding that this chapter is about the Temple’s destruction, not the world’s end and it is certainly not about the...

Recently, Doug Chaplin offered a response to a post I wrote on Mk. 14.7: Rethinking You Shall Always Have the Poor Among You . In his reply, he argued that the woman who anointed Jesus did so because she viewed Jesus’ impending death as ransom. My reply to Doug was that the “ransom theology” (that is, that Jesus, as “ransom” paid for the sins of the world) might fit in chapter 10 but it does not work in chapter 14. Even if the woman is a “slave woman” in chapter 14, as many scholars have suggested and even if she had knowledge of ransom practices, this pericope is not dealing with such matters. (Actually I don't even hold the view that the typical ransom theology works in chatper 10.) In the end, Doug acknowledged that I was correct and offered some more commentary on the same passage. Still, the whole ransom argument got me thinking. In particular, it got me thinking about the age-old question: To whom was Jesus’ ransom paid? Was it paid to (the) satan? Death? God? (Of course, ea...

Here's a "spoken word" I came up with the other night. There are a few lines in here that I just love. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Ever get a bug/virus, lose a file or received an alert that a spyware add-on has infiltrated your computer? Even more annoying, has your virus program alerted you as to the whereabouts of that file but when you tried to find it, it was nowhere to be found? Well, part of the problem is that Vista automatically hides certain files (and spies and virus makers know this) and it is in those folders and to those files that malicious threats are attached. So, how do you find a hidden file or folder in Vista? 1. Click the “Start” menu, in the lower right hand corner of your computer. 2. Scroll up and select “Computer” 3. Double click “C” 4. Now, up in the left hand corner, select “Organize” 5. Scroll down to “Folder and Search Options” 6. Click the “View” tab once 7. Scroll down until you see the folder icon and the phrase that reads “Hidden Files and Folders” 8. Select the box that says “Show hidden files and folders” (this should make just about every hidden file/folder appear in its proper ...

Perhaps more than any other scholar, Jerome Neyrey has researched envy and its role within the Gospel of Mark. In a thought-provoking essay, Neyrey surveys Mark’s work with an eye towards elucidating the meaning of Mk. 10.15: “It was ‘out of envy’ (dia phthonon) that they handed Jesus over.” Of course, the “they” here refers to the religious leaders who had been plotting to kill Jesus since the early days of His ministry (Mk. 3.6) and repeatedly trying to trap Him in His words and actions throughout the entirety of His ministry so that such plans might come to fruition (e.g. Mk. 10.2, 11.32, 12.12, 12.14-5, 14.1-2, 14.1-11, etc. *basically all of chapters 11-14). Of course, envy was a serious matter and was even considered a vice in antiquity. Affiliated with the evil eye (Mk. 722), envy was a way to bring shame, harm, disaster, etc. on one’s opponents. Just as well, in a limited good culture where honor was a most precious commodity, when one gained honor, that meant others lost it. S...

Here's a prank phone call that a friend and I made back in college. We called a video store asking for some pseudo film titles but as time went on, the call turned into something else entirely. Give the whole thing a listen; I think it's funny anyway (may take a few seconds to load). Prank Phone Call: "Movie Rentals"

Here's a song that a friend and I (Chris Deering) recorded back in college. We borrowed Paul Baloche's "Praise Adonai" chorus, Nas's "If I Ruled the World" beat and added to those, our own lyrics. We had a lot of fun doing this; we actually performed it for over 700 people once. Good times! Give it a listen. "Praise Adonai"

Tucked away in Mk. 14.17 is a verse that, while hidden, is well known. Indeed, I have heard this verse cited many, many times—usually in a pejorative or individualistic sense. In Mk. 14.17, Jesus makes the statement: “The poor you will always have with you and you can help them any time you want, but you will not always have me.” In a recent roundtable discussion with a group of people, here are some conclusions that people arrived at concerning the meaning of this statement: 1. It is a timeless truth, spoken by Jesus, asserting that the problem of poverty cannot be overcome. 2. Jesus is suggesting that we should do some nice things for ourselves because regardless of how much we help there will always be poor people. 3. There is a time and a place to help those in need. 4. Jesus’ statement is actually a critique of Judas’s and others’ complaining about the use of the anointing oil. Not to let the cat out of the bag but the fourth conclusion is my own. In what follows, I will show ...

So, today marks my 1-year blogging anniversary. In my first year of blogging I've had over 25,000 site visits (which is pretty good considering that I haven't pandered to a few certain people) and have written 519 posts. I've had about 400 downloads of software and other resources I've created. I've written over 60 studies on the Gospel of Mark (many more to come!) and have had tons of people land at Pisteuomen to access my posts on barrenness, sterility and adoption (which, I must say, absolutely warms and thrills my heart!). In the past year, my wife had our first child, I completed my second masters degree, I started the adoption process, I had the chance to accomplish some great professional work and I resigned from the ministerial position I served in for over 5 years. A lot has happened in the last 365 days. Blogging has been a release at times and a stressor at other times but it has always been worth it. Charting my thought life, family life, spiritua...

After a number of emails and fussy posts and comments from Scott Bailey, I have decided to cave in and give Pisteuomen an extreme makeover. So, over the next few weeks if you get some fishy posts from Pisteuomen in your page readers or if you're snooping around the site and notice some odd things, it's because the site is under construction. I guess enough complaining can get results sometimes.

In the Gospel of Mark, there is just something about Jesus’ words. Some people attribute power and authority to His words while others consider them blasphemous and troubling. It is this tension that keeps Mark’s drama interesting. The reader/listener is drawn into the story because they want to see what else Jesus has to say and how certain persons will react to His words. So, while Jesus Himself is the centerpiece of Mark’s account, Jesus’ words, in all reality, probably assume the same, if not, in some ways, a greater role. If Jesus had never spoken, Mark would hardly have a story. Therefore, everything hinges on what Jesus says—His words. This got me thinking about Jesus’ statement in 13.30 that “Heaven and earth will pass by but my words will not pass by”. (If you are interested in why I translate “pareleusontai” as “pass by” instead of “pass away”, see study #62 in this series.) What does Jesus mean when He says this? Are His words frozen in time? Are His words static? How are we...

Have you ever been in a Church setting where, when someone is called on to pray, instead of praying, they offer up a sermonette or a moral treatise? For instance, the preacher will ask so and so to pray and they say something like: "Lord, we need to all be better people. Many among us have done things they shouldn't have and others have worn themselves out doing things. There is always room for improvement. We should just keep working hard, remain dedicated and faithful. We need to sacrifice our time, money, talents and whatever better than we do. Be with us as we leave this place, God, amen." I've never really understood why people do this. There is no plea for help, there is no seeking God's guidance, there is no sense of cogency, coherency or even communion, all that exists is a broken up moral treatise/sermonette. This prayer is not said with the purpose of entering into God's presence, it is to exhort the group that is listening. One of my professors used...

While Mk. 13 certainly sounds apocalyptic (many have dubbed it the “Little Apocalypse; e.g. Colani, Wiffenbach) and quite eschatological (many have suggested it is about the End Times), and while I will most certainly be seen as something as a nuisance for saying what I am about to, I wish to share a different view. I do not think Jesus is being overtly apocalyptic or eschatological in Mk. 13. Yes, there are some statements Jesus makes that seem apocalyptic in nature but in the end, I am wholly unconvinced that what Jesus is saying is meant to be taken in the sense of apocalyptic. If we go by the SBL definition of apocalyptic, building on the work of T. R. Hatina, I can come up with over 15 reasons as to why Mk. 13 doesn’t fit the bill as apocalyptic (e.g. no revelation given from an otherworldly being, no transcendent/supernatural world mentioned, Jesus says the “end is not yet” – something contrary to apocalyptic lit., etc.). So, I do not believe that Jesus is being overtly apocalypt...

Yesterday, I wrote a post on why Christians should blog. In this post, I offer a few thoughts/tips on getting started. 1. Choose a blog host. In other words, choose whether you want to have a "Blogger", "Wordpress", "Typepad", "Vlogger" etc. blog (google any of these to land at their website). Wordpress has some great themes but Blogger is much more dynamic. With Wordpress you cannot manipulate the xtml/html to your liking. With Blogger, you can do whatever you want. I highly reccommend Blogger as a host because it is much more versatile. 2. Choose a blog title. The title should reflect the content of your blog. Decide if you want a personal blog, a topic-related blog, etc. Let your name reflect the type of blog you will maintain. 3. After you have chosen a host and a title, start a series of posts. I've found that by doing series, I always have something to write about. Often, bloggers can get writers block or burnout because they feel like ...

I shared a few thoughts on blogging a while back on a friend's blog. I thought I might share those and some more here as to why people (Christians in particular) should blog. Now, I think it's hard to tell sometimes if our blogging is just something for us to do (a hobby) or if it is making any kind of positive change or being a positive influence in the world. But, I've been blogging for a year (well, 51 weeks) and at this point in time, there are a few reasons I keep blogging and also reading other blogs: 1. It forces me to keep writing and to become better at writing. 2. It forces me to engage others (with my ideas and theirs). 3. It reminds me that people all over the world, whom I otherwise would never get to speak to, are reading and interacting with the stuff I have to say. 4. It allows me to not waste my thoughts. (In other words, it gives me a place to store all of my thoughts instead of just thinking about them and then letting them pass.) 5. Whenever I look at th...

Achtemeir, Paul J. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition . Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008. Pp. 255. Jesus and the Miracle Tradition , one of P.J. Achtemeier’s latest books is a great contribution to the field of biblical studies. The book, nearly 220 pages in length, is a fresh and timely piece of exegetical work. The point of the book, according to Achtemeier is not to question whether Jesus really performed the miracles, how they happened or whether Jesus was a magician of sorts. Instead, Achtemeier presupposes that they happened and that Jesus did them; this allows him to move past old disputes and on to another, and perhaps, more important issue/queestion: What did the miracles mean? Of course, when asking what the miracles meant, one is really asking how the Gospel writers made them mean, interpreted and understood them or what meaning they infused them with. While I find the whole “community” behind the text approach lacking to a good degree and while I am not convinced that there were mira...

Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark . Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitney. Proclaiming the Gospel: First-Century Performance of Mark . New York, NY: TPI/Continuum, 2003. Pp. 214. In this post, I am going to offer a brief review of two books that shared similar foci: Whitney Shiner’s Proclaiming the Gospel and Richard Horsely’s Performing the Gospel . Probably, of the two, Shiner’s title is the most accurate. In his work, he deals with performance in the ancient world and its myriad elements. However, in each chapter, he ties that in with Mark’s Gospel. For example, in the 9 main chapters, he deals with: Oral Performance, Types of Performances, Emotion, Delivery, Memorization, Gesture/Movement, The Audience, Applause Lines and Including the Audience. Shiner applies each of these to Mark’s work in a creative and detailed manner. That makes this book not only a good resource for Markan studies but also research in ancient th...

Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies , 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288. Honestly, I cannot sing enough praises for the second edition of Mark & Method . Edited by Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore, this work is first rate. A compilation of scholarly essays, this tome makes an excellent textbook for students of Mark’s Gospel. In fact, I would recommend this book before any others when it comes to getting a firm, introductory grasp on Mark. Imbued with a lengthy list of impressive contributors, this work contains 8 chapters that plummet the depths of hermeneutical issues, perspectives and approaches to the Gospel According to Mark. After a nice, concise history of the interpretation of Mk. in the first chapter, the next seven chapters illustrate the ways in which various hermeneutical methods illumine the text in various ways. The chapters’ titles are: Narrative Criticism, Reader-Response Criticism, Deconstructi...

LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story . New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308. As one whose scholarly interests are assuredly Markan, I must admit, the new novel by LaHaye and Jenkins, Mark’s Story , is neither incredibly scholarly or novel. In fact, the Left Behind Guys, in this new addition to “The Jesus Chronicles” series, left me very unimpressed. For starters, one-third of the book is, word-for-word, the Gospel According to Mark plus 1 and 2 Peter, all of which they suggest Mark wrote. Reproducing these sections of Scripture in the book was just unnecessary. Secondly, the story takes a fundamentalistic, narrow approach to reconstructing the man Mark’s life (e.g. maximalism to the max). Now, I realize this is a novel and that as with all novels, some liberties must be taken. However, these two seem to push full steam ahead on every maximalist coal they can find; nothing is ever critically questioned (for a good critique of this view, ...

Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451. A recent addition to the "Matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context series", Pieter Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman , is quite a thought provoking read. While the main title is indicative of the work’s content, it may well be the case that the subtitle is even more explanatory: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Craffert uses the label “Anthropological-Historical” in contrast to the typical historical positivism that undergirds most commentaries and biblical studies. Craffert sums up his approach: “Against the notion that historians can recreate the past, anthropological historiography admits against a naïve realism that there is no one-to-one referentiality (or representation of reality)” (14). To put it more bluntly, Craffert believes that re-creating the past is never objective (e.g. the...

Thanks to Blogger’s new “set and publish” tool (you can set a post to publish, just like an alarm clock and it does), I’ll be able to post while I take a week away from the computer. So, starting tomorrow, I will begin “Pisteuomen Book Review Week”. Each day, Monday through Friday, Pisteuomen will contain a book review. Here are the books to be reviewed and the days on which the reviews will be posted: Monday : Craffert, Pieter. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective . Minneapolis, MN: Cascade, 2007. Pp. 451. Tuesday : LaHaye, Tim and Jenkins, Jerry B. The Jesus Chronicles: Mark’s Story . New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s & Sons, 2008. Pp. 308. Wednesday : Anderson, Janice Capel. Mark & Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies , 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. 288. Thursday : Horsley, Richard A. Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory, and Mark . Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2006. Pp. 239, and Shiner, Whitne...