I'm reading The Bible As Human Witness to Divine Revelation, which is edited by Randall Heskett and Brian Irwin. I won't be blogging through every single essay in it, for I've already read at least half of the essays, without blogging about them. (I've been busy and tired, due to my comps.) But I'll probably blog about the remaining essays. The reason is that my blogging has been rather slow lately, and so I want to jazz it up. As I looked through my blogs about my comps readings (not my taking of the comps, but my readings for them), I realized that those are my favorite blog posts. I can only get so much mileage out of complaining about Christians, or being an introvert, or life in general, and so I'll resume my practice of blogging about things that I read to add some spice and diversity to my blog.
My Mom's husband will be coming this week to help me to move. I'll be moving from Cincinnati to upstate New York. Consequently, there will probably be a few days in which I won't have a blog post. But don't despair, dear readers! I'll resume blogging when I can!
The essay that I read today was Robert C. Fennell's "In the Bosom of the Beloved Disciple: The Fourth Gospel's Narrative Openness to Readers." In the Gospel of John, there are references to the disciple Jesus loved. Many believe that this disciple was John, the traditional author of the book. A few hold that it's Lazarus, since, in John 11:36, the Jews remark that Jesus must have loved Lazarus.
Fennell doesn't seem to believe that the apostle John wrote the Gospel that bears his name, for how could a Galilean fisherman produce such a beautiful work? But Fennell doesn't view the "disciple Jesus loved" as fiction, either, for the end of the Gospel tries to address a common belief that the disciple would not die. When a writing attempts to counter an embarrassing situation, then there's a good chance that the embarrassing situation is historical, for why would anyone create embarrassment? Consequently, there most likely was a "disciple Jesus loved" whom a Christian community expected not to die, but who did die.
Fennell also says that the Gospel of John contains some signs that it contains historical material, such as the disciples counting 153 fish in John 21:11.
But Fennell wonders: why does the Gospel of John refer to this particular disciple anonymously, even as it refers to other disciples by name? Fennell concludes that, while the disciple Jesus loved was probably a historical person, the author of the Gospel refers to him anonymously so that he can stand for every believer. The reader is invited to enter into a special relationship with the living Jesus, the same sort that John had. This goes beyond merely accepting dogmas.
I have three reactions to Fennell's essay, based on my experiences in the wild world of religion:
1. I remember a minister---it may have been Charles Groce or Bill Watson in the Church of God (International)---who said that John refers to himself as the "disciple Jesus loved" because he was too humble to use his name. I guess that's one explanation. But I can understand why Joyce Meyer gets kind of annoyed with the disciple Jesus loved (as I barely recall from a sermon that she gave). He was cozying up to Jesus, like he was sappy and was kissing up. Moreover, to add some of my issues, why does he refer to himself as the disciple Jesus loved? Didn't Jesus love the other disciples, too? And why does the Gospel stress that the disciple Jesus loved beat Peter to Jesus' empty tomb? That doesn't sound too humble, does it, assuming that this disciple is the author of the Gospel of John (which John 21:24 appears to imply)?
2. At Harvard Divinity School, N.T. Wright said that there are a lot of ideas about why there are 153 fish in John 21:11. There are allegories and theological explanations, etc. But Wright remarked that few consider that maybe the Gospel says there were 153 fish because the disciples counted them and that's how many there were! That statement got a chuckle from the class, much of which was conservative, for N.T. Wright was affirming the historicity of the Gospel of John. Okay. But why does the Gospel mention that there were 153 fish? Just because it happened? There were plenty of things that happened, that the author probably did not deem significant enough to mention in the Gospel. Why mention the 153 fish?
3. Knowing the risen Jesus. I wonder why Christians are so dogmatic that they "know" God. I'm not saying they don't and I do. I just wonder how anyone can claim to know God. Even if there is a God (and I believe that there is), we're interacting with a conception that we have in our own minds, which is largely shaped by us. How can anyone be so bold and presumptuous as to claim that he or she knows this being who is invisible to us? I know that the Bible talks a lot about knowing God, but, quite frankly, hurling proof-texts at me to shut down my question doesn't accomplish much. What's it even mean to know God? Does that mean that a Christian's opinions are the same as God's? I know Christians who act this way! They hate Muslims, and they know God, and so God must hate Muslims. Sorry. I don't buy that.
I'll be writing a few more blog posts today. I'll be going to church this morning, after a three-week hiatus (due to my studying for my comps, which were on Mondays for the past three weeks). Consequently, I'll write about something in the church service that stood out to me. I may also read another essay in The Bible As Human Witness to Divine Revelation, and blog about that. In between of my writing and reading and maybe watching TV, I'll be doing some radical apartment-cleaning, to make my apartment fit for the next person who lives there (and, hopefully, to get back my security deposit). Stay tuned!