WORD STUDIES

The term of the day is

“intertemporal projection”

Dictionary definitions:

intertemporal,describing any relationship between past, present and future events or conditions(http://www.yourdictionary.com/intertemporal)

Dictionary definitions:

intertemporal,describing any relationship between past, present and future events or conditions(http://www.yourdictionary.com/intertemporal)

projection,7. the act of visualizing and regarding an idea or the like as an objective reality. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/projection)

Why study “intertemporal projection” at church?

Why study “intertemporal projection” at church?

Because both Old and New Testament writers may have projected their understandings of current circumstances to events occurring at different times than their own, or they may have projected historic events to apply to their own times.

Peter Enns:1. Literary projection may occur in either temporal direction,

a. back in time by applying present understanding to interpretation of the past, or b. forward in time to interpret past events as applying to present conditions.

continued . . .(The Bible Tells Me So, HarperOne, 2014, p. 227)

Peter Enns:1. Literary projection may occur in either temporal direction,

a. back in time by applying present understanding to interpretation of the past, or b. forward in time to interpret past events as applying to present conditions.

2. Enns says that Old Testament writers often "shaped how Israel's storytellers talked about their past" to apply to their present.

continued . . .(The Bible Tells Me So, HarperOne, 2014, p. 227)

Peter Enns:continuing . . .

3. Biblical scholars are in general agreement that Old Testament (Tanakh) writers were not attempting to predict the future arrival of a messiah, but rather were addressing conditions in their own times.

(The Bible Tells Me So, HarperOne, 2014, p. 227)

Peter Enns:continuing . . .

3. Biblical scholars are in general agreement that Old Testament (Tanakh) writers were not attempting to predict the future arrival of a messiah, but rather were addressing conditions in their own times.4. New Testament writers Matthew, Luke, and Paul in particular, anxious to tell their perceptions of the Jesus story to their respective audiences, took liberties to reinterpret a number of Tanakh passages to refer to and predict the coming of Jesus as the long-expected Messiah.

(The Bible Tells Me So, HarperOne, 2014, p. 227)

Bart Ehrman:

1. Jesus’ references to "Son of God" and "Son of Man" often are taken to refer to himself and to imply his own divinity.2. But these references may be projections by the Gospel writers from ancient writings to their own times. 3. The term "Son of God" is an ancient Hebrew term applied to kings of Israel who had been anointed by God (or his prophet), and thus had been "adopted" by God.

continued . . . (Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, HarperCollins, 2014)

Bart Ehrman, continued . . .

4. Jesus' references to "Son of Man" do not refer to himself but to a heavenly lesser-deity described in the biblical book of Daniel and in the non-canonical book of 1 Enoch.5. This Son of Man, a heavenly being, will be sent to earth by God Almighty at the apocalypse to eliminate evil and establish the Kingdom of God over which a human messiah (an "anointed one") will rule as King. 6. Jesus didn't think of himself as God, the Son of God, or the Son of Man, but rather as the long expected apocalyptic messiah, a human, who would rule the Kingdom of God once the Roman regime had been overthrown. (Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, HarperCollins, 2014)

Bart Ehrman, continued . . .

7. By the time that the Gospels were being written, Jesus may have become regarded as Son of God and eventually as God or co-god with the Almighty. 8. The term "son of man" came to be understood as referring to a normal human being. 9. Even as ancient concepts from the books of Daniel and 1 Enoch were being projected forward to Jesus' time, the post-resurrection perception of Jesus as Son of God became projected by Gospel writers back to accounts of Jesus' life decades earlier.

(Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, HarperCollins, 2014)

A question of intertemporal projection:

Did Jesus perceive of himself as an apocalyptic messiah or as a prophet of God and teacher of Jewish wisdom?

Biblical historians argue whether Jesus’ ministry should be characterized as apocalyptic or sapient:

Reza Aslan characterizes Jesus as a fully human historical apocalyptic messiah figure.John Dominic Crossan says that the primary emphasis of Jesus' ministry was not apocalyptic, but rather was sapiential.

Dictionary definitions:apocalyptic:  describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world; resembling the end of the world; momentous or catastrophic.(https://www.google.com/search?q=apocalyptic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=ubuntu&channel=fs&gws_rd=ssl)

Dictionary definitions:apocalyptic,  describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world; resembling the end of the world; momentous or catastrophic.(https://www.google.com/search?q=apocalyptic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=ubuntu&channel=fs&gws_rd=ssl)

sapient, possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sapient)

Reza Aslan characterizes Jesus as a fully human historical apocalyptic messiah figure.1. As a young adult Jesus fell under the influence of John the Baptist.2. After Herod Antipas had John beheaded, Jesus took up John's message that the Kingdom of God was near.3. This was a message that the Roman state would regard sedition relative to Roman sovereignty in Palestine.4. Jesus aggressively preached his message, but only to and for Jews in supporting and sustaining Jewish law. continued . . .(Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Random House, 2013)

Reza Aslan, continuing . . .

5. Jesus held an apocalyptic vision of the end of the world as it was known, to be replaced by a new world order that he called the “Kingdom of God.” 6. Jesus’ self-concept probably was that of the long-expected and hoped-for messiah who would liberate Palestine from Roman control and usher in the new world order in which he would be King of the Jews.7. However, as Aslan sees it, Jesus failed in virtually all aspects of his messianic quest.

(Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Random House, 2013)

Marcus Borg:Jesus' self-understanding was unlikely to be messianic:

. . . we have no way of knowing whether Jesus thought of himself as the Messiah or as the Son of God in some special sense,

(Meeting Jesus for the First Time Again, HarperCollins, 1995, p. 29)

Marcus Borg:Jesus' self-understanding was unlikely to be messianic:

. . . we have no way of knowing whether Jesus thought of himself as the Messiah or as the Son of God in some special sense,

or apocalyptic:. . . we have no way of knowing whether Jesus expected the supernatural coming of the Kingdom of God as a world-ending event in his own generation.

(Meeting Jesus for the First Time Again, HarperCollins, 1995, p. 29)

John Dominic Crossan:1. The primary emphasis of Jesus' ministry was not apocalyptic, but rather was "sapiential," i.e., that the Kingdom of God is present in the here-and-now, and is open to the righteous.

(The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, HarperCollins, 1992).

John Dominic Crossan:1. The primary emphasis of Jesus' ministry was not apocalyptic, but rather was "sapiential," i.e., that the Kingdom of God is present in the here-and-now, and is open to the righteous.

2. Apocalyptic eschatology is a matter of humans waiting for God to act; in contrast, sapiential eschatology perceives that God is waiting for humans to act.

(The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, HarperCollins, 1992).

Patrick Goggins:1. Apocalypticism had been "in the air" in Palestine for five centuries. 2. The political environment of Palestine in third decade of the first century was relatively calm.3. However, apocalypticism heightened significantly in the seventh and eighth decades of the first century (when the earliest gospels were being written) due to several destabilizing events (earthquakes, Masada, destruction of Temple in Jerusalem). continued . . . (A Reader's Guide to Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God, Part III, Kindle eBook, 2014).

Patrick Goggins:continuing . . . 4. Apocalypticism thus may have been projected by the Gospel writers in the seventh and eighth decades of the first century back to the ministry of Jesus in the third decade.

(A Reader's Guide to Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God, Part III, Kindle eBook, 2014).

Conclusion:1. If Patrick Goggins is right that apocalypticism was projected back to the ministry of Jesus by the Gospel writers, Jesus' ministry indeed may have been sapient rather than apocalyptic.

Conclusion:1. If Patrick Goggins is right that apocalypticism was projected back to the ministry of Jesus by the Gospel writers, Jesus' ministry indeed may have been sapient rather than apocalyptic.

2. This implies that Jesus’ self-concept was more likely to be that of a prophet of God who taught the wisdom of the Tanakh to fellow Jews than that of an apocalyptic messiah.

This presentation may be viewed in essay form on-line at:

http://www.dickstanford.com

Click on “Selected Essays”

Click on “A Post-Christian Theist”

Click on “Ministry”