Tag: discovery
PART III from Dr. Ben Witherington on the Imago Dei
Thanks for joining me in this series that summarizes Dr Ben Witherington’s lectures on the Imago Dei (at the Welsey Forum 2014, Evangelical Seminary).
The following are snippets of the talk; the things that made the biggest impact on me.
(Scroll to the bottom to read a bio of Witherington and access his books.)
“By loving God you become like God. You become what you admire.”
The Kingdom of God is here now.
my note: (God broke into history and time with Jesus and his mission-and has always done that, to which the Bible attests.)
The Kingdom is also to come.
Kingdom means dominion (a realm). Dominion is a noun. Dominion is our inheritance.
“We live in a foreshadow, not a foretaste of the kingdom.”
my note: (The kingdom will come fully in the “fullness of time” and all will be put to rights-evil vanquished.)
Yom means day in Hebrew.
Yahweh can be translated as “Ancient of Days”
“Jesus is the only human + superhuman.”
Jesus:
• he is fully unique
• he meets the requirement (for sacrifice)
• he is the only God-man
• he is the only one worthy to be a mediator
Jesus imposed self-limitation
(Satan tempted him to abandon that.)
Jesus’ limitations on the “OMNIs”:
• Time
• Space
• Knowledge
(He did have immediate access to God through his intimate relationship with God and that is why he could know secret or hidden things and how he could prophesy.)
• Mortality
• Power
Jesus accepted our natural limitations.
Phil. 2:6-8
Though in the form of God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
The big difference? He sinned not.
How Jesus dealt with problems:
1. Using the scriptures
2. With the spirit of God
Thus:
• We have the same resources
• We can imitate Jesus
BIO:
Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies.
Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
Witherington has written over forty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website.
Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.
Click to View the Books by Dr Ben Witherington
This temple Site pre-dates civilization, itself
As promised, I’m giving you a summary of the Wesley Forum I attended on April 7.
Lecturer Dr Ben Witherington focused his 3 lectures on The Imago Dei (Image of God)
The 1st session had to do with the Imago Dei seen through archeology.
He spoke about the huge dig at a high place found in Turkey, in 1993, called Gobeckli (click for amazing National Geographic photos and info).
This is probably one of the most significant discoveries since the Rosetta Stone–and I hadn’t even heard of it. Have you?
It invalidates the typical (secular) ideas of how religious and spiritual life emerged among humans.
Social Anthropologists have, until now, thought that religion came after people began farming and wanted to gain control of their unpredictable environment.
It worked like this…so they thought…
• Human stumbles on a new kind of mutated wheat that be more easily harvested.
• They kept the seeds and settled in areas to raise crops.
• They struggled against the harsh elements and began to think of wind, sun, rain, etc as superpowers (i.e. gods)…(superstitious folks).
• They tried to please and apprise the gods to gain better circumstances…and…
• Boom…religion.
You’ve heard this theory before, right?
To Witherington, this recent discovery shows that the need to reconcile with the divine is part of the human experience, not an invention that came at the advent of the agricultural age.
The religion of these high places helped begin civilization, not the other way around.
The oldest part of the Gobeckli site is dated to 10,000-12,000 years ago and is the oldest temple ever found in the world.
That’s old…but how old?
Wrap your brain around this!
It was created before people were living in villages, farming, and before they had domesticated any animals (sheep, dogs, cattle, etc).
People were wandering, gathering, hunting, and trying to connect to the divine…the whole time.
As the highest point in the region and situated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, I can’t help but wonder if Cain and Able used this very place. It could be just east of Eden. (LD)
Now, think of the age of this place this way:
The site dates to about 6,000 years before the Great Pyramids were created. It’s a time that precedes writing, by thousands of years.
And yes, it’s pre-Noah and the flood.
Giant monoliths, the largest weighing about 50 tons (¡ yikes !), depict a host of detailed carvings of animals. There are also some stylized carvings of people dressed in priestly vestments. Even more tremendous are the enormous erected stones which have holes drilled into them to tie up animals.
But, remember this is a pre-bronze age. Pre-iron age.
How long did it take to make a hole such as this in this rock with just another rock?
These structures are made in a sophisticated fashion. Cave people were smarter than we assume.
It’s astonishing.
But there are not just 1 of these 30 m. circles with 13 massive stones …they have found 17 of them.
Each takes about 3 years to unearth. (Things are just starting to get interesting! In 50 years they still will not be finish. Much more surprises could be in store.)
Here’s the wikipeda article about the site.
According to archeologists on the dig, the site was eventually backfilled (purposefully) at a point in human development when villages were being established. It seems that local temples were used at that point.
NOTE: (Witherington believes they were not backfilled purposefully, but that the flood (in Noah’s time) moved sand up to the place from the Tigris River. I, personally, think that the flood would have ruined them and that they were indeed backfilled purposefully [for what specific reason, I don’t know]. To me, this burying is what preserved them so well so we could now find them intact. It’s a crazy amount of work to do such a thing, and I don’t know how they could, but the whole site baffles our understanding, so I haven’t ruled it out.)
Dr Witherington concludes that because of the image of God within us, we desire to commune with God (or gods). We always have.
All the ancient people groups had 3 things:
1. Temples
2. Priests
3. Sacrifices
I will elaborate more on the lectures in the next post and include some of my notes from the other 2 sessions.
Read PART II
Read PART III
Enjoying what you’re reading?
Get delivery…straight to your inbox; join several hundred fans and sign up in the sidebar.
Discovery: The Cave of the 5 Kings
This is my final post that pays tribute to Dave Dorsey, in light of his recent passing. (To read the others, please use the search field in the sidebar and search “Dorsey”.)
One of the lasting legacies of David Dorsey is in archeology.
After much research and motorbiking around the area. Dorsey correctly located the biblical place Makkedah–the location of the cave where five Canaanite kings hid from Joshua (Josh 10:16).
In class he gave us the details of this adventure which included a lot of language research (forensics, really), visiting the area and speaking with local inhabitants, and even included a strange tale of a strange (and he said perverse) Arab man who offered him his wife and daughter for sexual pleasure.
(I’ve heard of Middle Eastern hospitality…but that’s just too hospitable, right?)
Dorsey’s proposal was not accepted immediately– theories are typically contested–but the location is well-accepted now in reference books and textbooks. It’s commonly seen printed on Biblical maps that refer to that time period. If you hear the story, think about Dave and this contribution. It’s a fine legacy.
You can read his paper on the location here.
You can read of this and other findings in this book.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into the influence Dave Dorsey had on me. I could continue this series for a long time, and perhaps, once in a while, I will post a gem of knowledge or wisdom he gave me.