Reading Paul and Palestinian Judaism 6: Ben Sirach

Sanders claims that two actions can atone for sins in the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach: (1) honoring one’s father and (2) giving to the poor (338).

• Sir 3.3: ὁ τιμῶν πατέρα ἐξιλάσκεται ἁμαρτίας, // the one honoring [their] father atones for sins.
• Sir 3.30: πῦρ φλογιζόμενον ἀποσβέσει ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη ἐξιλάσεται ἁμαρτίας. // [as] water puts out a blazing fire, so alms atone for sins.

Giving to the poor is a thoroughly Jewish idea. The notion of alms giving to the poor as salvific is also found Didache 4.6: ἐὰν ἔχῃς διὰ τῶν χειρῶν σου, δώσεις λύτρωσιν ἁμαρτιῶν σου. // if you have through your hands [i.e. through working], give it in redemption for your sins. The idea here is giving money earned through labor to the disadvantaged of the community serves to redeem the person from their sins.

This Jewish idea also shows some influence in Matt 25.31–46. In this parable, the Matthean Jesus separates those whose destiny is unending punishment from those whose destiny is unending life. The distinguishing mark between these two groups is one cared for the disadvantaged and the other did not. However, unlike Sirach, the Didache, or later Rabbinic writings, the link between giving to the poor and redemption/atonement/etc. is not explicit but implicitly embedded in the story.

I wonder if Matthew backed off a bit from this link between alms and redemption, making it only implicit, because he wanted to allow room for Jesus’ death as ultimately redemptive/salvific (cf. Matt 20.28). I am not a Matthean scholar but one might be able to see a trajectory here, as other Christian writers don’t seem to make this link: as the Jesus movement went from Jewish to largely Gentile, the distinctly Jewish link between alms and atonement slowly died to make room for other understandings of atonement (from Point A [Sir 3.30] to Point B [Did 4.6] to Point C [Matt 25.31–46]).

Just curious blog musings here, people …

2nd Paper Accepted to Atlanta SBL

I found out this morning that another one of my papers was accepted to present at the annual meeting of the SBL in Atlanta this fall. The title of the paper is The First Century Two Ways Catechesis as the Background of Hebrews 6.1–6. Here’s the abstract:

Hebrews 6.1–6 has proved to be a nettlesome passage throughout its interpretive history. The author of Hebrews has embedded three stubborn obstacles in the path of 6.4–6, which, taken together, have made it difficult to walk an exegetically straight course. First, the text seems to describe actual members of the Christian community, not pretenders (6.4–5). Second, it seems to speak of a true falling away (6.6). And third, it warns of the real impossibility of repentance after the apostasy (6.4, 6). These three obstacles have created a series of stumbling blocks for interpreters throughout history. Perhaps as early as the Shepherd of Hermas, the belief that Christians could not repent of certain sins—based partly on Heb 6.4–6—has vexed pilgrims traveling the Way. Understandably, modern scholarship has repeatedly attempted to steer a course around these difficulties by illuminating the path with a variety of historical backgrounds, none of which has achieved anything like a consensus. This paper argues that the first-century catechetical Two Ways didactic pattern, as exemplified in the Didache, proves to be an illuminating historical background to Hebrews 6.1–6. Though not evincing literary dependence, compelling conceptual parallels exist between the Didache and Hebrews 6.1–2. Further, the descriptors in Hebrews 6.4 correspond closely with the experience of catechumens at conversion in the Didache. In this light, parapiptõ in Heb 6.6 does not refer to irreversible apostasy, but to a failure to advance on the Way of Life.

Pretty excited and pretty nervous! I’ll be presenting this paper with Dr. Michael Svigel. If you’re going to SBL, I hope you’ll make plans to join us. I’ll post more details about the date and room of my presentation when I receive that information.

My SBL 2010 Paper Proposal Accepted

I just received word that one of the papers that I submitted to read at the annual meeting of the SBL was accepted. This was my first time to submit so I was quite anxious to hear back. I got an email at about 4:40am today giving me the news.

The paper’s title is “Addressing the Elephant That’s Not in the Room: Comparing the Eucharist in the Didache with the New Testament”. I will be presenting it at the program unit Didache in Context. The meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA from 11/20/2010 to 11/23/2010. Here’s the abstract:

This paper will seek to analyze the Didache’s Eucharistic prayers found in chapters 9–10. While interacting with Schwiebert’s recent monograph on the topic, it moves the discussion in a different direction by making use of heretofore-underutilized literary tools. It will attempt to answer the questions: (1) what is their theological message, and (2) why do they lack the words normally associated with the Eucharist as found the Synoptic Gospels, Paul, and much of later early Christian literature? Most notably, they lack any reference to Jesus’ death whatsoever. The thesis of this paper is that these Eucharistic prayers were originally composed ca. 36/37CE and are eschatologically focused, christologically undeveloped, and ecclesiologically polemical. Further, the Didachist chose these prayers instead of the Eucharistic prayers found in the Synoptic Gospels and Paul because they better suited his consistent polemical purposes, positing the Jesus movement as the legitimate continuation of Israel over and against the Judaism[s] of his day. The Didachist held that the Jesus Movement was not a false, rogue Jewish Messianic sect, but the true Israel—the true people of God. The prayers in the Did 9–10 fit this rhetorical purpose better than the liturgy found in the Synoptic Gospels and Paul.

I am thrilled to have this opportunity … and just a littttttle nervous! I have no doubt you were all planning on attending the Didache in Context program unit already <wink>, but I hope you’ll make plans to join us.