This week has been very busy. There are, of course, the usual culprits like work and family. This week was a bit different because of an event we had tonight at church.

Our church is unusually conscious of modern Protestantism's historical roots in the Reformation. We had a fellowship this weekend, one weekend after Reformation day, so it was pretty natural to theme it around the subject of the Reformation. And we wanted it to be educational.

So what we did is enacted a public dialog of sorts. Everyone was encouraged to come dressed in 16th century garb (many did). We had an indulgence seller who quoted little indulgence seller diddies from back in the day. We had one representative of the Catholic church (Cardinal Sadoleto) followed by Calvin, Zwingli and Luther. The material for each was pulled from their writings. Nothing other than basic introductory matter and connecting material was contrived so that everyone could be sure that they were learning something authentic.

The material for Sadoleto and Calvin was drawn from the book A Reformation Debate . Luther's material was pulled from the introduction to his 95 these that he wrote later in life and his 95 theses themselves. Zwingli's discussion was around the sacraments and was pulled from his letter to the princes of Germany, which can be found in the volume On Providence and Other Essays

Overall, it was fun. Tiring, but fun.

Just saw this post over at The Way of the Fathers blog All of Migne? Not quite. But I'm glad to see it online.

Thanks for pointing it out, Mike.

Delphi, classically famous home of an oracle to Apollo, is a sight to see in person. A few weeks ago my wife and I spent a few hours there. Since we were already tired from hiking in Meteora and it was rather warm, the trek wasn’t particularly easy. But the ruins…the ruins were awesome.

Here are the pictures of Delphi. I will be posting pictures of other sites at a later time. Enjoy!

I do have more pictures. If you have a particular need for more pictures of Delphi, do let me know.

Fantastic catch at one of the Half Price Books near work today. Spent way too much money though. Of those I got, the following four are the ones I am most looking forward to reading:

• Luke: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist by Mikeal C. Parsons.
• Constantine and Eusebius by Timothy D. Barnes.
• The Fathers of the Church by Mike Aquilina (find his blog here)
• LaSor's 2 volume Handbook of New Testament Greek

Yay! New Books!

I just finished reading Voting About God in Early Church Councils. I found the book quite interested. You can find a short review here.

Today I finished up Mark 13 in the adult Sunday School class. We’ve been on the chapter for several weeks now and we’ve covered a lot of interesting material, but it is time to move on. It has actually seemed longer than it has actually taken because of something that is key to understanding Mark 13, and this is that Mark 13 is just a thematic continuation of both chapters 11 and 12.

An Unfortunate Disassociation

It is too frequent that various things, such as bad verse divisions, bad chapter divisions, and mistranslations lead to missing the thematic unity of two bits of Scripture. In some cases the material itself can lead people astray when they aren’t really paying attention. I believe both a bad chapter division and a seeming change of material has led to a drastic misunderstanding of how Mark 13, his version of the so-called “Olivet Discourse”, functions within its context.

This will be a known fact to most, but to some it may be relevant, and that is to remember that the chapters and verses were added to our Bibles only in the last few hundred years. These breaks are often misleading and occasionally completely wrong. In the case of Mark 13, the chapter break is appropriate but still misleading. There is a significant change in setting, which makes the chapter break okay, but for some it might be misleading because it separates that material from what came before. And all of the material in the chapter is very closely related, so the grouping is appropriate there. But if the chapter break between 12 and 13 has caused too much discontinuity, it is doing more harm than good. So what is this theme that times them all together?

The Rejection of the Israel and the Exaltation of Messiah

So if there is a theme that combines chapters 11 through 13, I would argue that it is the rejection of unrepentant Israel and its leadership and the raising of Jesus to his proper place, King of Israel. This theme is communicated both implicitly and explicitly through four primary vehicles: symbolic events, Old Testament allusions/quotations, debates and direct statements. The following list will cover only 11 and 12; chapter 13 will get its own treatment.

Symbolic Events

The following pericopes communicate this theme through symbolic events:

• The Cursing of the Fig Tree and the “Cleansing” of the Temple (11:12-20) – Jesus approaches a fig tree that bears no fruit because figs are not yet in season. Yet he curses the tree anyway. He then goes into the temple and chastises the merchants in the temple (and by extension, the chief priests and experts in the law that allowed them to be there – this is why they were angry). He then returns to the fig tree, and it is withered. The placement of the temple incident between them is done to symbolically say that the temple and those who run it will be cursed. And I put “cleansing” in quotes above because I think it has nothing to do with cleansing; like the fig tree, God intends to kill it, not heal it.

Old Testament Allusions and Quotations

The following pericopes communicate this theme through quotations and allusions to the Old Testament:

• The Triumphal Entry (11:1-11) – Those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem welcomed him quoted from Ps 118, a psalm of David. Who is he one who comes in the name of the Lord? He is the king. The statement right after, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David” makes the association of Jesus with David hard to miss. The exaltation of Jesus was coming.

Direct Statements

• The Parable of the Tenants (12:1-12) – Like their ancestors, the Jewish leadership rejects God’s prophets. In this case they will reject God’s greatest messenger, his son. The result? What they have to tend (the people of God) will be taken away and will be given to another.
• Exposition of Psalm 110:1 (12:35-37) – Jesus attempts to raise the level of understanding of the crowd regarding the exalted status of the Messiah.
• Warnings about Experts in the Law (12:38-40) – Direct condemnation of the “experts in the law”.
• The Widow’s Offering (12:41-44) – Jesus praises the poor widow who gives all she has, saying she is giving a greater gift than the rich. Seemingly harmless, its placement in the narrative makes it clear that this is meant to be a condemnation of the leadership of Israel, who would be rich in comparison to this woman yet lacking in their faithful giving.

Debates

The following pericopes communicate this theme by showing Jesus debate (and win against) the religious leaders.

• The Authority of Jesus (11:27-33) – Jesus trips up the Jewish leadership by bringing up John the  Baptist. Thematically this ties in well with the place of John as Elijah as forerunner of Jesus, and how that is bound up with Malachi’s expectation of judgment/refining of Israel.
• Paying Taxes to Caesar (12:13-17) – The Pharisees and Herodians try to trip Jesus up with tax questions, but Jesus amazes them with his answer.
• Marriage and the Resurrection (12:18-27) – The Sadducees attempt to beat Jesus in a theological squabble by coming up with a question about resurrection and marriage. Jesus rejoins by telling them they don’t really have a clue.
• The Greatest Commandment (12:28-34) – An expert in the law asks Jesus a question about the greatest commandment. Jesus answered wisely and “no one any longer dared to question him.”

The Olivet Discourse

So how does Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse, fit into this theme? For most it does not, because they rip it out of its context and put it into the future because they don’t understand the imagery and allusion that dominates this chapter. The discourse is of course looking to the future, but not to ours. After all, Jesus himself said “Truly I say to you that this generation will certainly not pass away before all these things have happened.” And if you see that, and can read the signs in the allusions, the general point is fairly clear. I will explore this more in a later post, but a few points to get you started:

1. The destruction of the temple. If a crazy arsonist were to come to my house and set fire to it, that would seriously ruin my day. But what would be the larger ramifications of it? Other than him going to jail and me having a huge hassle on my hands, probably minimal. But what if someone, say Iran, firebombed and burned down the White House? The ideological ramifications of that are huge. They just set fire to the centerpiece of the greatest power in the western world! In the same way, a destruction of Jerusalem and its temple is a big deal symbolically. Who cares if Timbuktu is overthrown? God did not make a covenant with them. But how big a deal is it if the temple of God’s own people is destroyed?
2. If the temple is destroyed, the symbolic centerpiece of Israel, what does that say about the spiritual state of Israel? The answer is seen in the parable of the tenants: Israel is consistently wicked, and those who tend that vineyard must be destroyed.
3. It fits in well from a time-table perspective because of the temporal scoping you 13:30; the temple is to be destroyed within their lifetimes. This, of course, makes great sense in the context of the parable of the tenants. God sends his prophets over and over and they are repeatedly rejected and/or killed. At the end the owner sends his son. This is why the prophecy makes sense where it is, because it is discussing the punishment that generation gets for rejecting the Son. Put this in the distant future and you miss the point entirely. They needed to be destroyed because they killed the son.
4. The ideas expressed in the Olivet Discourse, like the ideas in both chapters 11 and 12, are ultimately what gets Jesus killed. He made enemies of the leadership by talking of their spiritual apostasy. His talk culminates in the dramatic warnings of chapter 13. Immediately after this section, 14:1 moves on to their plans to kill Jesus. And what shows up as the first charge against Jesus in Mark 14 when he is brought before the high priest? “We heard him saying ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and after three days I will build another not made with hands.” The high priest and his cohorts were quite aware that statements and stances against the temple was an attack on them, not on the temple itself.

Absent from the lists above is how the Olivet Discourse contributes to the theme via Old Testament allusion (it is full of them), symbolism (lots of that too) and direct discourse (and that). This will be treated in another post, because these issues deserve their own treatment.

Conclusion

In most treatments of Mark 13 that I have heard, it is disconnected thematically from what is around it. For the most part this likely has to do with confusion around its meaning. Most read it, see the hyperbolic language, miss its Old Testament roots and punt this whole discourse into the future. This, in turn, separates the discourse thematically from 11 and 12, because a chat of the distant future is of no relevance to the spiritual state of Israel at that time. Consequently, they actually end up missing the point of the entire thing.

Reading the discourse this way is quite unusual for those of us who grew up in southern evangelicalism. It took quite a bit of reading and reflection before it really sunk in for me, though now it seems the obvious direction to take it. Soon we’ll start diving into the chapter and see where it takes us.

Previous Posts in the series:

1. Getting Ready
2. Day 1: Traveling
3. Day 2: Manuscript Business
4. Day 3: The Paleographer
5. Day 4: Catalog Day
6. Days 5 and 6: General Work Days
7. Day 7: Road Trip to Sounion!
8. Day 8: Easter
9. Days 9 and 10: General Work Days Part 2
10. Day 11: Manuscript Photography Day 1
11. Day 12: Manuscript Photography Day 2 and the Awesome Bookstore
12. Day 13: Finishing Manuscript Photography at the National Historical Museum

The previous night, Dan and I had stayed up checking manuscript images and burning DVDs. By the time the sun was up, I was exhausted. Regardless, it was a great day for a road trip. I could sleep on the way, after all. There were three candidates for this road trip: hit a Greek island or two, travel the Peloponnese or go north for Meteora. Going to the islands held a risk, in that a problem getting back to the mainland might mean missing our flights early morning Tuesday. As for the other two, I had no strong feelings.

Garrett, however, had been wanting to go to Meteora for some time. So Meteora is was. Soon afterwards I packed, had a quick breakfast and headed out. After dropping off some DVDs of manuscripts at the National Historical Museum, Garrett and I headed north. Fortunately I was able to start sleeping, as not having any sleep in 24 hours is a serious drag.

Providence smiled upon the adventurers early on, even while I was sleeping. Fortunately, we were running out of gas and Garrett pulled over at a gas station. I went in to buy a snack (gas stations over here don’t have the variety of snacks that their siblings in the states have) and settled on some ice cream. As I was purchasing, the clerk and I were talking in broken English and Greek. He asked why I was here and I said that I was a tourist (certainly true today). In response he reached behind him, grabbed a postcard with a statue of a naked muscular dude (those Greeks) holding a spear and shield, pointed down the road and said "300 meters". I thanked him, walked outside and looked at a sign by the road, this one to be precise:

So I thought "Thermopile…Thermopylae! Isn’t that where the Spartans fought the Persians!?" Sure enough, 300 meters down was the very site of the battle, and we had a great time looking around. First we went up the rather short fortified hill of Kolonos, which is apparently where the Spartans were finally defeated.

Next we went down a path that didn't seem to lead anywhere (what fun!). We came back down and saw a ridge that looked very steep. I mentioned that it would be fun to climb. Garrett countered that he didn’t think I could do it. So, of course I had to. Here is me at the top of the ridge.

At the top of the ridge I found the remains of the fortification wall of Phokians:

Not being sure exactly what that is, I snapped a few pictures. I can look it up later. Instead of climbing back down the way I came up, I took the sane route of finding a different way down (it really was steep). There was a path leading from the ruins and I took that. It took us to the path that we went down before…which we stopped short of following far enough. Doh! The next stop was across the street, on to the fancy monument for the event so long ago (and, of course, yet more dudity...those Greeks...):

Here is one close-up of the sculpted panorama (couldn't think of the sculpted-in-marble equivalent of the word "fresco" for painting) depicting the battle (this is on the right, the side where the Spartan warriors are depicted):

Next was a drink from Leonidas' spring, of course. Those who know me will find this difficult to believe, but I'm pretty sure this took me from being very manly to being super manly.

On the way out we dropped by the springs, just a quarter of a mile from the monument. The spring smelled of rotten eggs, so there is sulfur present. To my surprise, the waters were very hot.

So then we headed out. On the way we saw another manly destination, the spring of Achilles. We, of course, drank from that one too. As of yet we have seen no side effects like dysentery, insanity, etc. However, we have noticed that we have both grown much thicker hair on our chests.

We headed out again. The mountains and valleys that separate Athens from the northern area of Greece, like Meteora, are gorgeous. Fantastic sights. This is yet one more reason why vacations in Greece should have as little as possible to do with Athens…too crowded and dirty.

We arrive in the area of Meteora and the view is fantastic. Cliffs rise out of the ground to intimidate all around, dwarfing the tourist city that sits below them. Of course the line from the Princess Bride struck me, “The Cliffs of Insanity” (said with a sligh lisp, as I am sure you remember). The following pic was taken from the town square the next morning. Big.

And that doesn't do it justice. We drive through the town and head up towards the monasteries that occupy the cliffs. The first “v” in the road sends you left to the Holy Trinity monastery or St Stephen, the right leading to all the rest. We park just to the left in front of the path to the Holy Trinity monastery and start hiking down the path. About halfway there we notice a path down to the right into the woods labeled "Kalambaki". Being adventurous and not having a clue what that meant, we decided to take it. For a while we guessed what it was. "Maybe it means 'bottom'". "Maybe it is referring to the place where they lowered the rope to bring up people and supplies from before they had staircases". Et cetera. After a very long while something started dawning on us, that perhaps "Kalambaki" was the name of the town at the bottom of the cliffs, because the path started to look like it led there. And sure enough, we eventually found ourselves in the town. Doh!

I, for one, had no intention of going back up that really long path at that moment. I had only a few hours of sleep from the previous night and figured it might just kill me, so my idea was to find a cab. And as it turned out, the trip down to Kalambaki at that point was fortunately timed. Most of the overnight rooms apparently closed around 7:00, and we had just enough time to eat and reserve a room before everything closed down. If we had stayed up at the monastery...who knows. We might have had to sleep in the car that night.

We had a fair supper with a fair price and then obtained a room for 34 euro. We tried to find a room with internet access, but since it was so close to 7:00 we could not be picky about our choices. I had asked the waitress at the restaurant at which we ate, explaining we wanted a hotel room with internet. She kindly explained to me that "hotel and internet are different things". Oh well. We were, however, able to find internet access that night. We found it at an ice cream bar, though the wifi was not theirs. I still have no idea whose it was, but was grateful for it. This was the occasion for my post from Kalambaki.

Along with ice cream that evening, we were able to round up a few goodies at a local newspaper stand. They had English, French and German newspapers along with several in Greek. I bought a couple comic books in Greek...surely a good way to practice the language! After this we headed back to the rooms for a much needed snooze.

The end of day 14.

Apologies on being late in finishing up my trip reports. I know some of you have asked for them. Apparently, not sleeping during the night a couple nights (not continuous) before a 20-ish flight and layover sequence back to the states is a recipe for exhaustion. I've been able to make it to work for semi-normal work hours (used up all my vacation so I didn't have much of a choice), but other than that I've been absolutely exhausted. More tired than I've ever been before. So beat that I couldn't hardly think, read, write, watch TV...nothing. I am, however, coming out of it apparently, so I will be resuming my posts (likely) today, and will hopefully finish up the backlog of trip posts tomorrow.

I guess I'm getting old.

Snatching a little time on the intertubes from an unsecured linksys router while sitting at an ice cream store that has fantastic sweets. Over my left shoulder rises the cliffs of Meteora here in northern Greece. The bottoms are lit by lights below, though the heights are obscured in darkness. Beautiful site. Will blog about today's adventures when I get home tomorrow. Never know when I'll lose my connection here.

I was up all last night. I was either verifying manuscript images or burning dvd's of them. We got the work done. Yay! But I'm beat.

But today is road trip day. But I'm so tired! What to do? Easy answer: drive to Meteora and have roomie drive the five hour trip so you can get your sleep! Thankfully, he agreed.

We'll have all day tomorrow to roam around northern Greece. If anyone out there has some must-see recommendations, please leave a comment.

Later!