BOOK #82
The New Testament

read it and review it

go to Edward's home page Review by Edward Tanguay
February 3, 1998

Jesus turns the world upside down. The lowly man, the whore, the robber, the blind man are all better than the scribes and the Pharisees. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Children are greater than adults.  "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."  Everything is turned on its head.

Jesus turns the world inside out.  It is not what is on the outside that  counts but what is on the inside:

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

Jesus breaks common families ties and defines a new family:

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Jesus does not offer an easy path to follow: "...strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." He is not he lamb carrying hippy that I learned about in my Sunday school class, but a man of character with a deep fire for what is right. For instance, he snaps at Peter: "get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." And his action in the Temple against the scribes and Pharisees is pungent:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharissees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharissee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The New Testament is just aching to be interpreted.  It is a bundle of dry wood waiting for a spark.

After reading flaming statements like the above, I wonder how members of the Catholic Church throughout history could read the Gospels and not see themselves as the modern day scribes and Pharisees? If anything is clear in the Gospels, it is that Christianity is not about waving smoke around in the church, ringing hokus-pokus bells, and standing up and sitting down in the pews. Could Jesus have said it  a-n-y  m-o-r-e  c-l-e-a-r-l-y ? 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Wasn't it just in 1963 that the Catholic Church stopped saying mass in Latin, a language that most people could not understand?

The Catholic Church is a huge monolith of history and important to study and know about, and being a Catholic is a comforting thing, but I think the slow moving Catholic monster (when did it finally admit that the world was round?) has to finally come to terms with Jesus' message in the Gospels. Doesn't the Catholic Church of today have yet to recall Martin Luther's excommunication? (If this is true, they need to read the Gospels again.)

I actually enjoyed getting four versions of Jesus' life. The gospels are the most powerful and most genuine part of the New Testament. I would like to understand the difference between the four Gospels, who they were written for, how they portray Jesus and his message, what they emphasize and what they leave out. For instance, Luke gives us a better account of the childhood of Jesus where as John is more philosophical. It would be a fascinating study.

The Sermon on the Mount is probably the most beautiful extended moment in the Gospels and in the New Testment. It turns the world upside down and gives a silent power and contentment to the weak and poor and meek. "Ye are the light of the world." Jesus is at his best: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." He gives us a vision of greatness yet one which is an extreme challenge: "That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." He transmits wisdom, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

Every time I read the Gospels I am jolted by Jesus' adamant character. He is fully resolute. He wavers not. He is a hard rebel. He has a determined, crystal clear goal. He speaks in riddles that leave crowds contemplating. Reading his life, you feel a lack of time--he knows how the mission is to be accomplished, what needs to happen and when, and he executes accurately, and quickly relaying his message at the right moments. He stands for a mystery. He is a tip of an iceberg named God.

This is why I think the most poignant moment in the Gospels is when Jesus on the cross shouts: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" You feel Jesus to be a mighty, Godlike figure, yet here suddenly, beaten and broken down, you see a touch of humanness, and you can identify with him.

Isn't that why he came?

*  *  *

The rest of the Bible is overshadowed by the Gospels. Just as in any revolution, the leader is the one who has the fire and the profound power to change the world. Reading about those who follow up and do the dirty work is anticlimactic. The New Testament keeps its structure as a whole in the end, but after Jesus exits the stage, and the initial with Him begins to wear off, and the New Testament even takes on a whining tone at times, living out a belief that is losing its freshness (the world just wouldn't end), trying to keep a belief going by actions and words and writing letter after letter to churchs telling them to get back in line.

Paul just isn't Jesus. When we read that Paul blindly bulldozes a beautiful system of Greek belief ("Ye men of Ahtens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious") and as he whines in letter after letter that the members of churches across Greece and Asia should not do this and not do that, we have to boo. Christianity in its pure form is a small community of people who follow the footsteps of Jesus. That in itself is probably a good thing.   But as soon as you begin institutionalizing it, it begins to be as weak as its weakest link (like communism) and the word "Christianity" begins to be used in perverted ways. If we project from Biblical times, we see the unfortunate destruction fifteen hundred years later of two continents of North and South American Indian cultures in the name of Christianity (not to mention the Inquisition and the Crusades and the horrible daily acts of violence committed by the Catholic Church such as burning learned men at the stake for performing science). As soon as any good idea begins to get institutionalized, it begins to break down.  The remainder of the New Testament after the Gospels is an account of this breakdown and the attempts to reconcile it.

ACTS

The early story of Christianity given to us by Acts is exciting to read, as the Christianity of the disciples was new yet small and growing, there were only a few, it was them against the world, and they had God (and key angels with angelic keys) on their side. Fresh with memories of Jesus on the minds, the disciples set out to spread the good news to the world.

I was actually surprised at how matter-of-fact Acts is reported, basically a travelogue of Paul. Having been a bad guy turned good, Paul has a powerful conversion story that he tells, here to King Agrippa:

    And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
    Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
    At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
    And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 
(huh?)
    And I said, Who are thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
    But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
    Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee.

The scene with King Agrippa after Paul finishes his testimony is a gentle moment. Paul's statement to the King is like a child's: "King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." and the kind refusal of the King followed by Paul's honest and clear statement of love and purpose, then the kind response to Paul, this scene waxes Shakepearean in its poignancy:

    Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
    And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds
[nice move, excellent use of ethos by Paul--you can almost see him turn his sad eyes down to his handcuffs as he utters this]
And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. 

ROMANS

Eventually the person who is put in charge of enforcing policy becomes a nay-sayer, loses his originality and begins to nag. Paul stops being profound and becomes simple, basically calling on his members to refrain from fleshly activities and engage in spiritual activities. Paul writes: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you . . ." Paul's advice: "Flee fornication."  (I was expecting something more profound.)

Paul begins to get lost in details: "Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth is head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonouresth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered."  Who cares Paul? Give it a rest. Jesus would never say such piddly things. But then, Paul is only human.

Paul even lets his machoism loose (anachronism?), "And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." These are not words of a wise man but of a petty policeman trying to keep social order in a group of new religious converts through his letters.  Where Jesus spoke through his actions and was cryptic and profound, Paul speaks through words and is only occasionally profound. Paul plays the coach at half-time ("We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are preplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed") and he plays the parents away from home on vacation instilling fear into their kids on the phone so that they are good ("For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: And lest, when I come again, my God . . .").

2 CORINTHIANS

In Second Corinthians, Paul says poetically in many ways (again) that we should "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" and have "perfect holiness in the fear of God" and "the God of love and peace shall be with you."  He also tells of his adventures: ("And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.") And he tells of his tribulations.

Through Paul's pleading for his sheep to "do good," we get advice that makes churches strong:

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

For, breathren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

GALATIANS

In Galatians, Paul continues his offensive against "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." And if his flock should do these things, they "shall not inherit the kingdom of God."  On the positive side, the "fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

EPHESIANS

The theme of unity is carried into Ephesians. Each person should do his part, be ye not angry, don't sin (of course), no fleshly things, wives submit yourself to your husbands, husbands love your wives. He then has a very visual rendition of becoming a "servant of Christ" using an armour metaphor (I think I remember actually performing this in Sunday school):

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness: And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

PHILIPPIANS

In Philippians more of the same: rejoice in the Lord, stand fast in the Lord, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, etc.

COLOSSIANS

In Colossians, we learn to "beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceipt," and again, no"fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives, children obey your parents. And "whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men" (that's cool). And a word to masters regarding their slaves: be just.

THESSALONIANS

Thessalonians tells us more of the same. I get the feeling that many of these people in the churches and Paul himself believed that the world was going end in a matter of weeks and that they just had to hang in there for "yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night" so be on the look out, as "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Don't stop working ("if any would not work, neither should he eat.")  Get yourselves in order for the end is near.

TIMOTHY

The first letter to Timothy is full of good advice but which boils down to basic Christian values that we have been getting in the other books. Again, Paul lashes out against women: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."  Was this just an idea of Paul's or did Jesus also speak so harsh and unfairly against women?   What did Paul have against women: "give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully". Further in Timothy we learn that "the love of money is the root of all evil" and we learn to "fight the good fight of faith".

In second Timothy, he is told to be a "good soldier of Christ," stay away from deceivers.

TITUS

In Titus, the pastor on Crete gets advice for his church. Basically a repeat of what we have heard.

PHILEMON

Phliemon is an odd little book pleaing for the release of a slave who stole something.

HEBREWS

Hebrews is of course a major book. Since it was addressed to the Hebrews, it has a strong basis in the Old Testament and in the old teachings. This book is a nice, powerful and poetic relief from the string of repetitious letters coming before it. Beautiful language:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sights: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Here we get a lot of arguments that fit to the Jewish state of mind at the time ("For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."). We learn that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Many Old Testament references. Jesus is of course set forth as the prophet which the Old Testament prophesizes. The last chapter of Hebrews has nice poetry:

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

JAMES

In James, we get the advice "do not err, my beloved brethren . . . be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only," help the poor and do good works, "for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

1 PETER

In First Peter, servants learn to "be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, for this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully." We see in such verses what power Christianity has for the oppresssed. It gives them a deeper meaning so that they can endure. In the same way, "wives, be in subjection to your own husbands."  Likewise, "ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."

In Second Peter, we learn that "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night" again. "The Lord is not slack on his promise."   Seems like there were some "scoffers" to deal with in the churches.

THE JOHNS AND JUDE

And in the three Johns and Jude, we learn that we must admit that we sin, otherwise we deceive ourselves. And that "he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." And we get more predictions that Jesus is about to come back:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

And since it is about time to end the world, we need to sort out who is who: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son." The theme is that we should believe in Jesus Christ, for without him, there is nothing. The John books are very pleasant, mild, and gentle. In Jude we get more signs of the coming end: "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." Don't give yourselves over to the flesh in the last days. Hang on. Remember Sodom and Gomorrha.

*  *  *

THE REVELATION

Then comes Revelations. Since Jesus never came back, I suppose this book was written to prevent large drops in church membership and to give the waiting Christians a vision of victory. By this time, most of the people who had actually met Jesus or lived during that time, had died off or disappeared. The second generation Christians were getting edgy dedicating their lives to something that put them constantly in fear of horrendous persecutions and which was showing signs of not occurring anyway. The church was put with the task of leading its people onward.  And if you want to lead a people, create a powerful vision. This is what Revelations does.

The Revelation and Heavy Metal  

It is no coincidence that reading Revelations reminded me of a Black Sabbath concert. The heavy metal bands of the early 80s picked up the Revelation and Antichrist theme with full force. In fact, I remember an album cover which depicted the end of the world as described in  Revelations Chapters 12 and 13, full with the dragons, the 666 on the forhead, the lake of fire, and the fornication and destruction going on admist this chaos. Rock and Roll with its need for generation distinction could have found no better theme to give kids something to give a clear signal to their parents: "I am rebelling against your values."  In Puritan and Bible-charged America, there was nothing more shocking during the sober Reagan years than your child buying a "record of the beast" and identifying with such utter sin (today they pierce themselves).

 

Is Revelations
an unchristian book?
To Christians of that time, Revelations was written in order to show how the world was really going to be turned upside down when Jesus comes back. It gives doubting Christians something to hope for.

Yet for precisely this reason, Revelations could be considered an unchristian book--it reverses Jesus' teaching that internal values are most important. Revelations gives Christians the vision of winning in an externally sense.  Jesus taught a private, internal victory. Jesus wanted us to be meek and mild and to love our enemy. This is not the picture we get in Revelations. How can we love our enemy (really) when we secretly desire and await him to be eaten by the beast? 

The book of Revelation
is not a book of love.
It is a book
of revenge

which appeals to the pent up desires which Jesus taught were not important and Paul spent his life trying to smother. With Revelations, Christians see themselves winning externally as their enemies are being hurled into firey lakes. 

When he said that the meek shall inherit the earth, I hope Jesus didn't mean
the brash Hollywood crescendo
of Revelations.

The Book of Revelation is a powerful and impressive piece of literature, comparable to and providing raw material for Milton's Paradise Lost. It is Wagnerian, it is brassy, it is big. The thundering language and mystic tone are fully different than anything else we read in the New Testament:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was and which is to come, the Almighty . . . And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

That Jesus would be returning had been hinted to in the past couple books, but nothing as severe (and eerie) as this:

Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the word of my mouth . . . and I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts.

This books Acts through Jude are as if a parent has tried and tried to nicely get his child to behave, and then finally (with the book of Revelation) the parent has resorted to force.

You can forget really understanding Revelations unless you get into interpreting the symbolism. There are lots of numbers for us to match with other systems. The result is beautiful cryptic verse:

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. . . . And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Imagery abounds:

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in they mouth sweet as honey.

What does all this mean?  A fascinating book.  I would like to hear it fully  interpreted someday (preferably on a hot summer's evening in a Southern Baptist tent revival interspersed with countless heartfelt amens!).

*   *   *

So what do we do with the Bible today?

Study it? Believe every word of it? What do we do with this tremendously influential text? Religiously, historically, politically, culturally, for its philosophical, ethical and social implications, it is too huge to ever be disregarded.

My answer?  Just keep reading it.

Edward Tanguay


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