Geohistory of the BibleUnderstanding the Message of the Media

The Academy for Christian ThoughtRon Choong, PhD

Executive Summary

1. The Bible is an anthology of many voices, perspectives and genres which came to be used as scripture.

2. The Bible evolved over the past 2500 years of its written history largely due to evolving vocabulary.3. Developments in science, technology and medicine changed interpretations of the Bible4. Understanding the geohistory of the Bible helps us to make sense of seemingly conflicting or alarming texts

1. Anthology of Voices, Perspectives & Genres

a) The Bible is an anthology of many voices and perspectives reflecting during different places (geography) and times (history). Thus, interpretation changes with our own geohistory.

b) The Bible is a collection of different genres – poetry, song, lament, praise, celebration, teaching, history. Thus, there is no single way to interpret every passage of the Bible.

c) The Bible came to be used as scripture, i.e., to assist in worship. Thus worship came before scripture.

2. Geohistorical Vocabulary

a) The meanings of words depend on the specific vocabulary of any language, and they evolve over time according to usage.

b) The vocabulary of the modern Bible reflects the geohistorical contexts of the writers' experiences of God.

c) Although Judaism is 2500 years old, the modern Bible has been revised (versions and translations over the past 1700 years) to reflect the evolving use of words since the 4th century. 

d) Thus, biblical interpretation hinges on our abilities to account for the changing meanings of words over the years and to distinguish the media from the message of any passage.

3. Sciences, Technology & Medicine Advances in the sciences, technology and medicine shaped how we interpret the revelation of God in scripture and tradition. Four examples:.

a) the discovery that the Earth is not a flat disk under a curtain of lights – the Church apologized to Galileo Galilei

b) The development of archaeology – the DSS, Nag Hammadi and Oxyrhynchus excavations revised every version of the Bible

c) invention of the printing press that led to the computer – we now depend on software to confirm the accuracy of the Bible

d) the advances in medical knowledge saved lives – prayer alone is no longer the only way to heal.

3a. Scientific inference & PhenomenologyIn 1609, Galileo observed the phases of Venus and the movement of Jupiter’s moons to infer that it is the sun and not the Earth that is at the center of the solar system.

Opponents cite Josh. 10:13 "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed . . .”, Psal 93 & 104 and Eccl 1:5 (NIV) which also speak of celestial motion and terrestrial stability.

But the Biblical writers used "phenomenological" language, the language of appearances. Today we still speak of the sun rising and setting to cause day and night, rather than the earth turning. From an earthbound perspective, the sun does appear to rise and appear to set, and the earth appears to be immobile.

The Day the Sun Stood Still?

3b. Biblical ArchaeologyBiblical archaeology's verification and falsification of interpretation.

1799: Emergence of Archaeology in Egypt

1800s: Emergence of Biblical Archaeology

1850s: Discovery of Ancient Near Eastern artifacts

1900s: Discover of Extra-Biblical Documents

2000s: Verification and Falsification of Biblical Interpretations

The Oxyrhynchus Papri P. Oxy. VI 846: Amos 2

3c. Digital Technologies & Accuracyc. 100,000 BC: The first humans learned to speak using symbolic language, beyond iconic and indexical representations.

c.3500 BC: From the beginning of writing, Egyptian papyri & Mesopotamian clay tablets show typos in copying.

c. 700: The Chinese fixed printing presses reduced errors.

c. 1275: The invention of spectacles reduced copying errors.

c. 1430s: The European movable printing press reduced errors.

c. 1950s: The invention of the computer led to software that allows search engines to identify inconsistencies and errors.

The Diamond Sutra - May 11, 868

3d. Medicine, Surgery & Anesthesiac. 1084: First documented hospital, Canterbury, England

c. 1500s: Da Vinci’s medical drawings gave physicians the confidence to open a living body to fix diseased organs.

c. 1600s: Microbiology & surgical techniques saved lives.

c.1770s & 1830s: Discoveries of nitrous oxide and chloroform as anesthesia allowed for painless surgery.

c.2000s: Neuroprosthetics & Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) can replace biological functionality. E.g., cochlear implants, spinal cord simulator (SCS7)

Da Vinci’s Medical Drawings

4. Media & MessageThe divine message of God is eternal and universal but the human media is geohistorically contextual.

Planetary Geography: N. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, Israel, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Syria, Central & East Asia, Europe, USA

Planetary History: 3500 BC, 2000 BC, 1400 BC, 1000 BC, 700 BC, 586 BC, 5th centuries BC, first century AD, 4th century AD, 11th and 16th centuries AD

Extra-Planetary Geography: Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way, the visible Universe, etc, far, far away

Extra-Planetary History: 14 billion years ago … long, long ago.

Local Universe Map - 380 million light years

4a. Media & Message: Which came first?

Christianity’s Bible - how the early Christian faith shaped the composition and reception of the Bible to become the scripture.The departure of Jesus Followers and other God-Fearers from Greco-Roman Judaism to become Christianity with a scripture of their own.

Bible’s Christianity - how the Bible, now as scripture, shaped the evolution of Church beliefs as evolving interpretations identified what it means to be a Christian. 

The development of Christianity as a religion of scriptural writings.

4b. Media & Message: JudgmentEvery interpretation judges whether a passage is a medium or the message. Media have no doctrinal values but messages do. To understand the Bible – Distinguish the Media from the Message.

Media: Oral, written and digital – sayings, prayers and teachings recalled by memory, letters, announcements, creeds or inscriptions, e-books, sermons, commentaries, opinions, the Bible itself.

Media within the Media: Accounts, stories and parables in the Bible drawing from contemporary historical and scientific realities that point to theological truths

Messages: God exists, God is one, God loves his creation, Jesus is the fullest manifestation of God in human form, etc.

4c.ia. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

Erroneous Interpretations of scripture that ignored the geohistoricity of the media conveying the message led to tragic results in the lives of real people. How to avoid them.

1) Use and Abuse of the Psalms

The Psalms (“praises” in Hebrew ) is the only book of the Bible where the people addresses God rather than God addressing them.

They give us models for prayer, praise, liturgy, hope and faith.

They reflect the faith experience of a people to think about rather than God’s commands to follow.

They are not meant to be read literally as either historical or scientific texts.

4c.ib. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis1) Use and Abuse of the Psalms (con’t)

The are human words to God that has become a part of ‘God’s Word’ in which the human voice is given free expression.

Originally: 147 Psalms

Hebrew MT: 150 Psalms (used by most modern English Bibles) Psalm 151 deliberately removed to undermine the new Christians who use the LXX.

Hebrew DSS: 151 psalms

Greek LXX: 151 Psalms, including some not found in the MT.

Psalms 14 & 53 are repeats.

4c.ic. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis1) Use and Abuse of the Psalms (con’t)

Psalms were considered ‘inspired’ & ‘reveled’ by God? Because they were ‘received’ by God, according to ancient believers.

*Psalms are ABOUT God, not FROM God.

*Psalms are purposefully metaphorical – do not build up a systematic theology from them

*Ps 2, 89 & 110 refer to a messiah (a human) but we make it refer to Jesus (divine) because the NT is an exegesis of the OT – do not claim that the Psalms predict Jesus’ appearance, rather, the Gospel writers used the media of the Psalms poetry to express their own claim that jesus is the true messiah

4c.ii. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

2) Predictable misuse of Prophets & Prophecies

>92% concern reminders (forth-telling)

<5% refer to the new covenant age of the NT,

<2% were messianic (about Jesus)

<1% are about future events yet to come

The kinds of future that the prophets announced were usually the immediate future of the kingdoms of Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations rather than our future.

PROBLEM: The church has also tolerated so many bogus claims.

4c.ii. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

2) Predictable misuse of Prophets & Prophecies

1000 BC: Biblical prophecy began in Israel.

800 BC: Writing prophets started their commission.

500 BC: The final forms of their writings were edited.

1st century: Prophecy became less common as letters were used in worship as scripture.

AD 30s: Prophecy ended with Jesus, the final NT prophet.

PROBLEM: The church has also tolerated so many bogus claims.

4c.iii. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

3) The Anti-Christ in the New Testament is not a person, or the Devil or some spiritual enemy.

It appears 5 times in 1 John and 2 John (not in Revelation) simply refers to anyone who rejects what the writer says about Jesus, who has come in the flesh, is the messiah (Christ).

He or she would be anti the Christ, an anti-Christ.

However, bad exegesis led to a popular understanding of the Anti-Christ as an evil person mentioned in the Book of Revelation. This led to many people burned to dead or tortured as possible Anti-Christs.

4c.iii. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

How did the anti-Christ become an evil personality?

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to false messiahs and false prophets - Matt. 24:24 and Mark 13:22.

2nd century: Hippolytus of Rome equated the Beast in Rev. 13 with The False Prophet of the Gospels with the Anti-Christ.

Other Medieval Christians identified the foul spirits from the Beasts of Rev. 13 with the Devil.

4th century: Cyril of Jerusalem states that the Anti-Christ will rule for 3.5 years before being killed by Jesus.

4th century: Athanasius called Arius an Anti-Christ.

4c.iii. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics

5th century: Augustine complains that the Anti-Christ shall sit on either the ruins of Solomon’s Temple or of the Church.

10th century: Archbishop Arnulf of Rheims called Pope John XV the Anti-Christ.

11th century: Pope Gregory VII called Wilbert of Ravenna the Anti-Christ while Cardinal Benno called Pope Gregory VII the Anti-Christ.

16th century: Protestant Reformers identified the Pope as The Anti-Christ.

17th century: The Old Believers of the Russian Ortjodox Vhurch identified Czar Peter the Great was the Anti-Christ.

Mormonism: The Anti-Christ is Lucifer.

4c.iv. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics (Bonus)

4) Son of God (human) v the Son of Man (divine)

Dan. 7:13-14) – the only OT verses that combine Son of man with the eternal kingdom of God, a theme Jesus speaks of a lot in the NT.

God’s judgment is on Earth, not in Heaven. Daniel’s Son of Man comes FROM heaven TO Earth where he meets with God, the Ancient of Days.

For the Jewish people, only a divine person who lives eternally, not a human person who has to perish, may be worshipped.

4c.v. Media & Message: Bad Exegesis leads to Worse Hermeneutics (Bonus)

5) The Rapture (does not exist in the Bible)

Originally a synonym for the resurrection of the dead

18th century: It came to refer to a misreading of 1st Thess. People left behind of Earth while others fly through the sky to meet Jesus in the air.

American Puritans, Increase and Cotton Mather began the idea, and it was then popularized in the 1830s by Irishman, John Darby, father of Futurism and Dispensationalism. This was later popularized by Cyrus Scofield in his Scofield Reference Bible.

Many people were encouraged to sell everything in anticipation of their disappearance from this Earth.

Conclusion

The BIBLE is the Media and JESUS is the message (John 1:1).

Knowledge comes by two means, Top-Down (TD) or Bottom-Up (BU). TD refers to knowledge gained from a divine source while BU refers to investigations of the human mind by observation.

The Christian view is a combination of TD and BU because each book of the Bible possesses its own geohistory.

Unlocking the riches of the Bible show us a wonderful and loving God, and answer difficult questions that have kept apologists up late at night.