Observing the Sabbath and Universal Cultic Inclusion in Is. 56:1-8

For those of you who do not know, my research right now primarily investigates the various ways ancient Jews and Christians bring together holy space and holy time, particularly the Sanctuary and the Sabbath, focusing on priestly traditions or traditions that reflect upon or respond to such traditions (particularly P, H, and Ezekiel; Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice; and Epistle to the Hebrews). Nonetheless, I was struck by the passage in Is. 56:1-8, which, although evincing some general conceptual similarities to P, H, and Ezekiel, takes a different tack in articulating how the Sabbath relates to the Sanctuary by universalizing the relationship.

In the priestly framework in the Priestly source of the Pentateuch (including the Holiness Code) and Ezekiel, improper reverence of the Sanctuary and lack of observance of the Sabbath, or their profanation, leads to being cut off from the community. The inverse corollary to this is that proper observance and reverence of the Sabbath and the Sanctuary leads to full inclusion and participation in the cultic life of the community. In these terms, Is. 56:1-8, the beginning of what is sometimes called Trito-Isaiah, brings the Sabbath and the Sanctuary together in a rather unique, yet complementary, way to the other Hebrew literature I have primarily investigated (P, H, and Ezekiel). The way the Sabbath and the Sanctuary are brought together, in itself, complements the views of P and Ezekiel: proper Sabbath observance and not profaning the Sabbath becomes the sin qua non of coming to the Sanctuary, here the “House of Prayer”— this Isaian passage, by the way, includes two of the ten instances of profaning the Sabbath in the Hebrew Bible. Stated another way, full cultic participation at the Sanctuary is the reward for observing the Sabbath. Yet Trito-Isaiah universalizes the relationship, allowing full cultic participation for Sabbath-observers who are Eunuchs and foreigners—a direct contradiction of Ezekiel’s and the Holiness School’s purity requirements. The “House of Prayer” is open to all who observe the Sabbath.

In the entire passage of Is. 56:1-8, the opening oracle to Trito-Isaiah, observing the Sabbath occurs three times (vv. 2, 4, 6) and profaning it twice (vv. 2, 6) (cf. Is. 58:13-14). In the passage, the Sabbath is paired with not doing evil generally (v. 2), doing pleasing things and keeping the covenant (v. 4), and holding fast the covenant (v. 6). Again, keeping the Sabbath is the only specific injunction mentioned. Throughout the passage, Sabbath, Sanctuary, and Covenant will be interwoven:

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,

“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;

and let not the eunuch say,

“Behold, I am a dry tree.”

For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me

and hold fast my covenant

I will give in my house and within my walls

a monument and a name

better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

which shall not be cut off.

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD

and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the sabbath and does not profane it

and holds fast my covenant—

these I will bring to my holy mountain

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples. (56:3-7)

In this Trito-Isaiah takes the Priestly source’s conception of the development of covenant to its logical conclusion: since the Mosaic covenant was given on Sinai alongside the instructions to build the Tabernacle already interwoven with the Sabbath, and, in fact, the Sabbath is the sign of the Mosaic covenant (Exod. 31:16-17). Since the Sabbath is a sign of the Covenant and the Sabbath and the Sanctuary are interrelated, keeping the Sabbath or Covenant has implications for maintaining the Sanctuary and its cult. In all of this, Trito-Isaiah is firmly ensconced in the developments found in the Priestly Source and, to a degree, in Ezekiel. Nonetheless, the passage takes this relationship between Covenant, Sabbath, and the Sanctuary to unexpected places.

There is a clear relationship between the Sabbath and the Sanctuary, but its specific configuration differs from P, H, and Ezekiel. More specifically, keeping the Sabbath and the Covenant of which it is a sign, one can approach and participate in the temple, the “house of prayer,” and its cultic life. Moreover, in quite a different twist on the history of their interrelationship, the oracle here universalizes the application. Both the eunuch and the foreigner receive rewards related to the temple, because they observed the sabbath and kept the covenant. The eunuch, whose source of progeny has been “cut off” will receive a monument and a name within “my house” (i.e., the temple). This monumental name is better than sons and daughters, and will not be “cut off,” or karet, the same word used for the punishment for profaning the Sabbath. Unlike those who profane the sabbath and are “cut off,” even a eunuch, who has no source of progeny and, therefore, a means of continuing his name, will receive a name in the temple that will not be “cut off.” In sum, unlike when one profanes the sabbath and they (and perhaps their progeny) are cut off from the cultic life of the community, by observing the Sabbath, even a eunuch can have a name that will endure within the temple and its cult and not be “cut off.”

Next, and this is quite an innovation, a foreigner who has “joined himself to the LORD,” can have full participation in the cult if that foreigner keeps the Sabbath and the Covenant. This passage shows some early signs of conversion. Whereas the Priestly source’s delineation of successive covenants moved from general to specific, from universal to just Israel, with covenants from Noah (with rainbow as the sign), Abraham (with circumcision), and Moses (with the Sabbath), Trito-Isaiah takes the final covenant with the Sabbath as its sign and applies it to everyone who chooses to observe it. By observing the Sabbath and the covenant, these foreign devotees to the LORD can come to the holy mountain, be “joyful” in the “house of prayer,” and offer burnt offerings and sacrifices upon the altar. The “house of prayer” is now open to all: “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (56:7). Therefore, by keeping the Sabbath and covenant, the eunuch, in a reversal of the punishments for profaning the Sabbath, receives an enduring name that will not be “cut off” and the foreigner can come to the sanctuary on the holy mountain and fully participate in its cult.

This contrasts, indeed, with the pronouncements of Ezekiel, in which foreigners in the sanctuary profane it:

O house of Israel, let there by an end to all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning it. (Ezek. 44:6-7)

No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. (Ezek. 44:9)

Although resident aliens are accounted for, given an inheritance (Ezek. 47:22-3), they cannot participate in the temple and its cult. There may be a loophole, or perhaps an unforeseen development, since Ezekiel does not account for foreigners who keep the covenant and perhaps have become circumcised in heart and flesh. Nonetheless, Trito-Isaiah’s universalism is quite striking in contrast, taking a specific interrelationship between the Sabbath and the Sanctuary and making it applicable to all. Those who appear to be “cut off” from any progeny or “separated” from the cultic life of the temple will have those divisions rectified; if they keep the Sabbath (and do not profane it) and the Covenant, they shall be joined with the community, and have benefits in the sanctuary.

The Science of the Stars: The Antikythera Mechanism

The first-century BCE Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world's first analog computer, has received renewed study with X-Ray technology--so, from the world of art with van Gogh repaints (see post from yesterday) to the ancient world of science, this X-Ray technology is always revealing new things, giving us better understandings of the development of art and science. What can this device do? It predicted solar eclipses, kept track of the Olympiad, and, I gather, helped reconcile solar and lunar calendars. We often recognize ancient abilities to keep track of astronomical events--they could see the stars far better than we can (or any of us who live close to any large city or town) because of modern light pollution-- but we sometimes forget how technologically advanced ancient peoples were. See NYTimes article here (and reprinted below) and Nature.com article here.

July 31, 2008

Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, on Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with Archimedes.

Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse and died in 212 B.C., invented a planetarium calculating motions of the Moon and the known planets and wrote a lost manuscript on astronomical mechanisms. Some evidence had previously linked the complex device of gears and dials to the island of Rhodes and the astronomer Hipparchos, who had made a study of irregularities in the Moon’s orbital course.

The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C.

Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar.

In the journal report, the team led by the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, in Cardiff, Wales, said the month names “are unexpectedly of Corinthian origin,” which suggested “a heritage going back to Archimedes.”

No month names on what is called the Metonic calendar were previously known, the researchers noted. Such a calendar, as well as other knowledge displayed on the mechanism, illustrated the influence of Babylonian astronomy on the Greeks. The calendar was used by Babylonians from at least the early fifth century B.C.

Dr. Freeth, who is also associated with Images First Ltd., in London, explained in an e-mail message that the Metonic calendar was designed to reconcile the lengths of the lunar month with the solar year. Twelve lunar months are about 11 days short of a year, but 235 lunar months fit well into 19 years.

“From this it is possible to construct an artificial mathematical calendar that keeps in synchronization with both the sun and the moon,” Dr. Freeth said.

The mechanism’s connection with the Corinthians was unexpected, the researchers said, because other cargo in the shipwreck appeared to be from the eastern Mediterranean, places like Kos, Rhodes and Pergamon. The months inscribed on the instrument, they wrote, are “practically a complete match” with those on calendars from Illyria and Epirus in northwestern Greece and with the island of Corfu. Seven months suggest a possible link with Syracuse.

Inscriptions also showed that one of the instrument’s dials was used to record the timing of the pan-Hellenic games, a four-year cycle that was “a common framework for chronology” by the Greeks, the researchers said.

“The mechanism still contains many mysteries,” Dr. Freeth said. Among the larger questions, scientists and historians said the place of the mechanism in the development of Greek technology remained poorly understood. Several references to similar instruments appear in classical literature, including Cicero’s description of one made by Archimedes. But this one, hauled out of the sea in 1901, is the sole surviving example.

Astronomy (or Astrology), the study of the stars, and the concomitant importance of the calendar were extraordinarily important aspects of ancient culture--the ancient science of the study of the heavens not only was important for calendrical purposes, but also had a strong imprint on religious belief and practice, with the ancient Babylonians, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, etc. In order to understand their religious traditions, one must keep an eye on the stars. In fact, in a partial answer to one of my questions yesterday, the importance of astrological events for religious life would probably approach the prevalence of the evil eye, although the systematic study of astrological events can be tracked with much greater accuracy, beginning with the ancient Babylonians and spreading out from there. Nonetheless, somewhat less systematic observations of the heavens can be found throughout the ancient Mediterranean and the ancient near east.

Image Info:

Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

Fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the Greeks around 80 B.C. It was found on a shipwreck by sponge divers in 1900, and its exact function still eludes scholars.

Site Meter

Just today I added the functionality of a site meter to my site so I can keep track of the traffic on the site, and I would have never known that so many people visit my site if it weren't for this--since very few people actually comment.

But just since late Wednesday afternoon until now (about 1 a.m.), I have had visitors from all around the U.S. from New York to Chicago to L.A., and international visitors from Monaco, Greece, and New Zealand.

I am somewhat amazed that my review of Peter Schaefer's Jesus in the Talmud from about a year ago is still drawing readers. But most people have been interested in my posting on the Russia/Ukraine Church split (or potential split) and, interestingly enough, my series of quotations from Chuck Palahniuk's Rant.

Anyway, I'll keep posting on religion, antiquity, and whatever catches my fancy, and I hope you all enjoy it and keep reading!

What Lies Underneath Van Gogh

In case anyone didn't know, my absolute favorite painter is the earless Vincent van Gogh. My girlfriend just got me a mug with one of van Gogh's self-portraits on it, and when you fill it with hot liquid, the ear disappears! It is hilarious! Anyway, whenever I go to the Met, I have to make homage to the Impressionist / Expressionist wing where I can see some of his stuff. So I get excited anytime he's in the news--which is rare. And right now, due to advances in X-Ray technology, he is! I just read the following:

Hidden Van Gogh revealed in color by scientists

Wed Jul 30, 11:33 AM ET

Scientists have made a colored view of an early rejected painting underneath Vincent van Gogh's 'Patch of Grass' painting, using advanced X-ray techniques, a Dutch university said on Wednesday.

The very detailed image shows the face of a woman and may give art historians a better understanding of the way Van Gogh developed as a painter.

"It is estimated that one third of Vincent van Gogh's early paintings have been painted on top of existing ones. Van Gogh literally recycled his own canvasses," scientist Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology said.

Conventional X-ray techniques give a colorless, partial view of the hidden painting and only show vague contours of a person behind 'Patch of Grass', the university said.

By recycling his work Van Gogh painted many layers over the original painting but the scientists managed to scan all the different elements in those layers of the relevant area with X-ray fluorescence.

"We can make a virtual 3-dimensional model of the painting and start to peel off all the layers one by one. Then we get a nice detailed view of the hidden face," Dik said.

Van Gogh painted 'Patch of grass' in 1887 in Paris and it hangs in the Kroller-Muller museum in the Dutch eastern city of Otterlo.

(Reporting by Tineke van der Struik, editing by Paul Casciato)

I've reused a few of my own canvases--oh, by the way, I paint (more for therapeutic purposes than anything--every academic needs a non-academic hobby). The underlying image resembles much of his early work in which he depicts Dutch peasant life with dark colors, before he met the Parisian impressionists (you can see this on the reverse side of his most famous self-portrait (both sides on display at the Met). I'm excited to find out what they'll discover under 1/3 of his paintings!

The Ever Evil Eye

A while back, I posted on an ancient incantation from Ugarit to reverse the Evil Eye. See here. This text was over three thousand years old. And the Evil Eye was something feared throughout the ancient near east and the ancient Mediterranean.

Yet I should not neglect to mention that this extremely ancient and widespread belief in the maleficence of the evil eye has survived and is alive and well today, continuing to permeate religious belief and ritual of all backgrounds. Large numbers of Jews, Christians, and Muslims (and others) all retain the traditions of the evil eye. In fact, I have found the people have been coming onto my blog from Google searches on the evil eye (and how to reverse its effects). I doubt my website will give much practical help, however. Moreover, I have a comment on my posting from an independent vendor of Evil Eye amulets, bracelets, and so forth. Check out her site here. I doubt that my blog has enough traffic to boost her business however. By the way, in case people don't know, the most common amulet or symbol to ward against the evil eye is a hand facing downward with an eye in the center of it. You may have seen it before.

Being one of the most persistent and widespread religious concerns from antiquity to today no matter which god one prays to or what religious group one belongs to, it certainly deserves study. And, in fact, if anyone knows of any full-length scholarly study out there on the evil eye, I would love to hear of it. The problem is, who would do it? One would have to master so many languages, regional histories, and broader historical developments in order to undertake such an ambitious project.

I have found a few books from a quick search:

Rivka Ulmer, Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature (KTAV 1994)

Clarence, Maloney, ed. Evil Eye (Columbia University Press, 1976)

R. C. Maclagan, Evil Eye in the Western Highlands (1902)

Frederick Thomas Elworthy, Evil Eye: An Account of this Ancient and Widespread Superstition (1895)

The most comprehensive treatment appears to be just before the turn of the twentieth century--back when scholars investigated extraordinarily huge questions. There were some additional materials related to India and the evil eye used as evidence in witchcraft trials. For such a persistent and widespread phenomenon, it is amazing that so little investigation has gone into it. Unless Elworthy settled the case over 100 years ago... Any takers out there for a very huge research project? Can someone think of other religious phenomena that are as persistent and widespread as the fear and warding off of the Evil Eye? Or is it in a league of its own?

The Pope Versus the Pill: Humanae Vitae in the News

	Jillian Tamaki

Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae," which stated the Roman Church's position on Birth Control--an absolute no. The encyclical had its anniversary recently, and now is all over the news...or the "news that's fit to print," the New York Times, which an article here, and letters to the editor in response to the article here. This encyclical has not fared very well. In fact, according to the article, no papal decree has fared so poorly in public opinion and in actual practice:

Never before July 25, 1968, however, had opposition been so immediate, so public and so widespread. World-famous theologians called press conferences to rebut the pope’s reasoning. Conferences of Catholic bishops issued statements that all but licensed churchgoers to ignore the encyclical. Pastors openly criticized “Humanae Vitae” from the pulpit.

And ignore they have, for the most part. In the West, disagreement with and disregard for the papal decree exceeds 80% of the faithful, according to the article. Nonetheless, from the official level, the decree remains strong. I have a feeling that if this were a political issue (and luckily it isn't), Catholic politicians who supported the pill would be banned from the Eucharist just as they often are when they are pro-life. But the rift between the official line and the rank and file Catholic could barely be larger. The following response to the article caught my eye:

The encyclical “Humanae Vitae” suffers from a profound lack of humanity. Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI could and did choose to disregard the recommendations he solicited from Catholic couples and physicians — recommendations based on the real, human experience of marital love — in issuing his mechanistic prohibition.

That a group of celibate men can continue to leverage the faith to enforce this ban, and continue to cause needless anguish among decent people throughout the world who want to do right by their religious belief, is no accomplishment. Terrence R. Connelly

Palo Alto, Calif., July 27, 2008

The writer is a co-author of a book about the Vatican’s efforts to purge priest professors who published disagreement with “Humanae Vitae.”

I also find it quite odd that unmarried, celibate men think they can effectively discuss and define what is proper in marriage and sex, especially regarding a pill taken by women. Based upon what experience?

Orthodox Rift between Ukraine and Russia

The NYTimes has an article on a potential ecclesiastical rift between the Ukraine and Russia.

The Ukraine and Russia have not been on the best of terms lately...to say the least. The Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko, claims to have been poisoned by pro-Russian opponents. The Ukrainians also are seeking to eject Russia's navy from their seaport in the Black Sea, and join NATO, Russia's Cold War rivals. Russia, in turn, has threatened to cut off natural gas deliveries, which the Ukraine needs. But now there is a new thing under contention: the Church.

President Yushchenko now seeks to separate the Ukrainians from the Russian Orthodox Church. One should not be surprised at this, since many Church splits in history take place along political lines that take into consideration economic, social, and cultural factors--like the Protestant Reformation, for example. What is more, Orthodoxy since its inception (let's say with the Council of Nicea in the Fourth Century CE) has always been intertwined with state power (the Council was convened by the Roman emperor, Constantine I). Indeed, one might note the differences between Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, etc.

Note the following staging and politicking:

With Orthodox Church notables from around the world looking on, Mr. Yushchenko asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians, to bless the creation of an independent Ukrainian church — “a blessing,” he said on Saturday, “for a dream, for the truth, for a hope, for our state, for Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian president — who claims that pro-Russian opponents tried to kill him with poison that pockmarked his face — also snubbed the Russian Orthodox patriarch, Aleksy II, by giving him a businesslike handshake after warmly kissing Bartholomew on both cheeks.

During three days of solemn religious ceremonies, rock concerts and political brinkmanship in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the power struggle was not resolved. Both sides declared victory, as Bartholomew stopped short of supporting or rejecting the independence movement, saying only that divisions in the church would have “problematic consequences for Ukraine’s future.”

Clearly, Yushchenko is publicly staging his position (details matter!), while Bartholomew is playing wait and see. But what are these "problematic consequences"? Nonetheless, from a different point of view:

For Svetlana Dyomena, a nurse who prayed Tuesday at Yelokhovsky Cathedral in Moscow, the idea of an independent Ukrainian church immediately reminded her of her sadness over an independent Ukraine.

“How can Ukraine not be part of Russia?” she lamented after lighting a candle at the turquoise, golden-domed church, which was Moscow’s main practicing Orthodox cathedral under Soviet rule. “We have a common faith, a common history.”

Ms. Dyomena said it was less painful to see countries like Georgia seek to escape Moscow’s sphere of influence.

“Georgians, well, they were always from the Caucasus,” she said, referring to the restive mountainous region whose people have fought wars against Russian rulers for centuries. But Ukraine and Russia, she said, have “one language, one religion, even one cuisine.”

Ukrainians disagree. Russian was the language of government and education in Ukraine under the Soviet Union and Russian empire, and Ukrainians struggled to maintain their own language. They view the absorption of the Ukrainian state and church into Russia’s institutions under Peter the Great as an annexation that was not reversed until 1991.

“How can you live like neighbors when your neighbor says the house you live in is not your own house, but our common house?” said Bishop Yevstratiy, the spokesman for one of two Ukrainian breakaway churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, which the Moscow Patriarchate has declared heretical.

Establishing an independent church is essential for Ukraine to consolidate its national identity and statehood, and it would probably happen eventually, said Alexey Malashenko, an expert on religion and society at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

I am not so good on my history of that portion of the world. Did Peter the Great annex both the state and the church? Put another way, was the Ukrainian Church originally separate from Moscow? Or is the historical development messier than this? The claims of "heresy" are hardly surprising--such claims usually come from one in power when they see a threat to their power or position. Given the tendency of Orthodox Christianity to fall along political or ethnic lines, indeed, this eventual split is not at all surprising.

Israeli Universities and Palestinian Students

Today in the Chronicle:

July 29, 2008

Israeli Universities Step Up Criticism of Military Policy on Palestinian Students

In a scathing letter to Israel’s defense minister, the leaders of six Israeli universities have denounced a military policy that prevents Palestinians from studying in Israel as a gross violation of academic freedom, the human-rights group Gisha reported. The policy, which Gisha has challenged in petitions to Israel’s Supreme Court over the past two years, bars Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza from entering Israel without permission from the army.

The letter was signed by rectors and deans of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Meanwhile, five Israeli professors have requested that the Supreme Court allow them to join Gisha’s latest petition, the organization said. One of the professors, Moshe Ron of the Hebrew University, wrote to the court that the policy, if unchanged, “will help those who are trying to impose an academic boycott on Israel and will severely harm Israel’s academic standing in the world, especially in Europe.”

The military ended an outright ban on allowing Palestinian students into Israel in response to a 2006 request from the court, but the human-rights group maintains that the new restrictions are even harsher, leaving many students in limbo. Last month, the court again asked the military to reconsider its policy. —Charles Huckabee

For background on the academic boycott, click here.

In St. Louis as it is in Heaven

I think I've seen this before, but Paleojudaica just posted on it today. And, being from St. Louis myself, I could not pass letting people know about it--although Jim Davila has far more volume on his blog than I do, perhaps there is a handful of people who read me and not him, like friends and family in St. Louis who can actually take advantage of this offer:

HEAVEN ON EARTH
A Virtual Tour of Our Holy Temple
Wednesdays: July 30, August 6 and 13
7:30 - 9:00 pm

This summer, nearly 2,000 years since the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Chabad of Greater St. Louis will unveil Heaven on Earth, a three-week interactive course developed by the renowned Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, which recreates the ancient Jerusalem Temples from the ground up. Heaven on Earth will be offered at the Lazaroff Chabad Center, at 8124 Delmar Blvd., in University City, on three consecutive Wednesday evenings, 7:30 to 9 pm, beginning on July 30.

Through an interactive and innovative virtual tour, Heaven on Earth will enable students to conceptualize the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, allowing them to “walk through” the Temple’s ancient corridors, throng with the crowds through Jerusalem’s gates, and discover the marvels of architecture and design that were integral to this sacred site. Heaven on Earth provides students with an explanation for the central role the Holy Temple plays in the life and history of the Jewish people, and why to this day Jews of all stripes pray for the Temple’s rebuilding and converge upon the Western Wall, its surviving remnant.

"While many have explored the politics and geography of the Holy Land, few have explored the spiritual significance of the structures that stood for a millennium on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem”, said Rabbi Yosef Landa, the course facilitator. “By helping students envision and recreate the ancient Jewish Temples, they will come away with a newfound appreciation to for its historical and religious significance.”

Just last weekend, I went with a group in NYC to model reconstructions of the Tabernacle, Solomon's Temple, and Herod's Temple. They were very small, of course (lego men would have been slightly too big for the reconstruction). So, this thing in St. Louis seems quite interesting. The cost for the St. Louis virtual tour is $36. I guess my question is, which temple are they reconstructing? If they are emphasizing the Western Wall, I guess it would have to be Herod's temple. But maybe since they say "Temples," they are going to do all of them.

Baylor in the News

Baylor is making headlines (well...at least in the Chronicle for Higher Education) due to its recent firing of its president. See the Chronicle article here. Much of the difficulty appears to be a shift in goals that have affected the tenure process. The Baptist university is trying to become a top research institution, while maintaining its Christian character. In the process, it seems that some priorities in the hiring and tenure process have shifted, and 12 out of 30 tenure bids were denied this year. 10 of these appealed the decision, with 7 reversals.

Forbidden Gospels has talked about this recently (since she is geographically closer to Baylor), and has suggested two things: to become a top tier research university, 1) Baylor must secularize and 2) it must reward research above teaching in the tenure process. She suggests that the resistance is due to the conflict of becoming a top-tier research institution and maintaining their faith identity. In response, Rebecca Lesses (also known as Mystical Politics) has made a good point that it is not merely a conflict of faith and research, but a conflict of the conditions under which faculty were initially hired and the possible change in tenure evaluation. Lesses writes:

Without knowing anything about this particular case, it seems to me that there is not only a conflict over the university's faith identity, but over the expectations for faculty trying to gain tenure. If they were hired and were explicitly told that teaching was more important than research, and poured their energy into improving their teaching, then I believe it is extremely unfair to those faculty members to deny them tenure on the basis of a requirement they were not informed of at an early stage of their employment at Baylor. It seems to me that this sort of change has to be introduced slowly, over a period of several years, so that incoming faculty know what the expectations are that they must fulfill. I can see why the tenure and promotion committee disagreed with the president, if this is something that he did in only three years. I teach at an institution that places a higher priority on teaching than research in gaining tenure. If over the period of three years a dozen junior faculty were denied tenure by the president because they didn't have sufficient publications, there would be howls of protest.

This particular potential conflict seems to me to be the more important. Or potentially the more likely culprit behind the unrest. Any institution, whether having a "faith identity" or being secular, attempting to reach the top tier will have to go through a slow transition time. I am not so sure that maintaining oneself as a faith institution is so directly in conflict with becoming a top research institution. Although one might note that the top ivy-league institutions all (except one) began as faith institutions and today, well, basically are not. The one exception is my own institution--Columbia University (formerly King's College) never was a faith institution. To receive adequate funding from potential donors and institutions to become a top-tier institution, one might need to secularize. On the other hand, Baylor's recently-fired president sent the university's endowment level over the one-billion dollar mark for the first time last year. Perhaps the issue is attracting the best scholars to do research there. While there are very good scholars who would be of the same faith-character of Baylor, limiting oneself to those scholars could be detrimental to the success of reaching the top tier. I do not know if Baylor does this, but most scholars, for example, would not want to sign a statement of faith as a condition of hiring. In sum, I can see how there could be potential pitfalls for maintaining the institution's faith character and becoming a top tier institution, but I am not sure that their conflict is inevitable or necessary.

No Gender Gap in Math

So, this differs from my usual fare, but since I've been dating a math teacher, it caught my eye. According to a new national study, there is absolutely no gender gap in math aptitude, disproving the old stereotype that placed girls in more humanities-oriented courses and boys in math and science.

Here is the NYTimes article:

Math Scores Show No Gap for Girls, Study Finds

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: July 25, 2008

Three years after the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, got into trouble for questioning women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for science and engineering — and 16 years after the talking Barbie doll proclaimed that “math class is tough” — a study paid for by the National Science Foundation has found that girls perform as well as boys on standardized math tests.

Although boys in high school performed better than girls in math 20 years ago, the researchers found, that is no longer the case. The reason, they said, is simple: Girls used to take fewer advanced math courses than boys, but now they are taking just as many.

“Now that enrollment in advanced math courses is equalized, we don’t see gender differences in test performance,” said Marcia C. Linn of the University of California, Berkeley, a co-author of the study. “But people are surprised by these findings, which suggests to me that the stereotypes are still there.”

The findings, reported in the July 25 issue of Science magazine, are based on math scores from seven million students in 10 states, tested in accordance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The researchers looked at the average of the test scores of all students, the performance of the most gifted children and the ability to solve complex math problems. They found, in every category, that girls did as well as boys. (To their dismay, the researchers found that the tests in the 10 states did not include a single question requiring complex problem-solving, forcing them to use a national assessment test for that portion of their research.)

Janet Hyde, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study, said the persistent stereotypes about girls and math had taken a toll.

“The stereotype that boys do better at math is still held widely by teachers and parents,” Dr. Hyde said. “And teachers and parents guide girls, giving them advice about what courses to take, what careers to pursue. I still hear anecdotes about guidance counselors steering girls away from engineering, telling them they won’t be able to do the math.”

Girls are still underrepresented in high school physics classes and, as noted by Dr. Summers, who resigned in 2006, in the highest levels of physics, chemistry and engineering, which require advanced math skills.

The study also analyzed the gender gap on the math section of the SAT. Rather than proving boys’ superior talent for math, the study found, the difference is probably attributable to a skewed pool of test takers. The SAT is taken primarily by seniors bound for college, and since more girls than boys go to college, about 100,000 more girls than boys take the test, including lower-achieving girls who bring down the girls’ average score.

On the ACT, another college entrance test, the study said, the gender gap in math scores disappeared in Colorado and Illinois after the states began requiring all students to take the test.

According to the Chronicle, by the way, the gender-gap for university populations is approaching 60-40 in favor of women.

Being from Illinois and going to an Illinois undergraduate institution, I took the ACT, but I cannot remember how well I did on the math portion.

Prime Minister Maliki and Pope Benedict XVI

According to Reuters, Pope B16 has an open invitation to visit Iraq and help interreligious dialogue between the dominant Muslim population and the minority Christian population, much of which fled the country during the U.S. invasion. There has been some violence against the Iraqi Christians, particularly the targeting of clergy and churches by Sunni militants. One might recall that last February the Archbishop of Mosul of the largest of Iraq's Christian denominations--the Chaldean Catholics--was kidnapped and found dead two weeks later. Maliki thinks that the Pope's presence could help interreligious understanding, which is necessary for Iraq's future.

See the full article here.

Tenured Professor Leaves Westminster Because Bible has Human Component

I just read this in the Chronicle:

July 24, 2008

Bible Professor Will Leave Seminary Instead of Facing Hearing

A tenured professor at Westminster Theological Seminary who faced a hearing next month to determine if he would be dismissed is leaving on August 1 under what the Pennsylvania seminary called “mutually agreeable terms,” according to a statement on its Web site. The professor, Peter Enns, who taught the Old Testament at the seminary, wrote a book expressing the view that human beings shaped the Bible. The institution’s Board of Trustees suggested that the idea was contrary to the conservative seminary’s faculty oath. —Beckie Supiano

And here is the earlier story:

July 10, 2008

Tenured Professor Faces Dismissal at Theological Seminary

A tenured professor at Westminster Theological Seminary will face a hearing next month to determine if he will be dismissed for his teachings about the Bible, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this morning.

The professor, Peter Enns, teaches the Old Testament at the conservative Presbyterian seminary in Glenside, Pa.

In 2005, Mr. Enns published a book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, intended to help Christians and religion students make sense of apparent contradictions in biblical texts. Mr. Enns writes in the introduction that “Christ is both God and human. So is the Bible.”

The seminary’s Board of Trustees, which ordered the hearing, will focus on whether Mr. Enns violated his faculty oath. Professors at the seminary are required to pledge that they will not teach or even suggest anything contrary to Westminster’s confession of faith, which states that the Bible is perfect, infallible, and written by God.

Mr. Enns was suspended in March, after the faculty voted to support him. The four-day hearing is scheduled to begin on August 25. —Beckie Supiano

This is a tricky one. This is one reason why I do not want to teach at an institution where I have to sign a creed or a code of conduct, unless of course it requires me to have ice cream at least once a week if not more (gelato being an acceptable substitution). But, technically, he did not violate the statement of faith. The statement says the Bible is from God. The professor said this too. Just merely adding that it is from humans too. He says it is both. There are many good scholars who would say that the Bible was written fully of ancient people, by ancient people, and for ancient people, and, therefore, is generally irrelevant for people's issues today, something that would violate that statement. He didn't say that.

What is more interesting is that this is a case of the faculty versus the board of trustees. It sounds more political than anything. I would have to side with the faculty position on this one. It seems like the board of trustees is just behind the tide of scholarship on the Bible--and, yes, even conservative scholarship on the Bible.

Follow the threads here and here.

Tip for the Codex Sinaiticus Site

If you are having trouble seeing the Codex Sinaiticus on its new site because there are too many concurrent connections, go to the German version of the site (which evidently has less traffic than the English section).

It is a very nice tool. It has photos of each page which you can view with two different types of light and which you can magnify, a transcription of each verse, and translation (the translation was not up when I was playing around on the German site).

Have fun looking at the oldest most complete Bible online!

Codex Sinaiticus Goes Online Today

Codex Sinaiticus, one of the most important ancient texts, since it is the earliest most complete New Testaments that has survived (plus the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas), is now going to be digitized and parts of it, Mark I think, will go online today. The majority of the text has been housed in the British Museum, with pages or fragments of it being housed in Leipzig, St. Petersberg, and at St. Catherine's in the Sinai. It also contains Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) along with "Apocrypha"--often referred to as the Septuagint (LXX), although this designation only technically refers to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). The first half of the Old Testament texts are missing (from Genesis up to 1 Chronicles). Those going online today or soon include 1 Chronicles, 2 Esdras, Esther, Tobit, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Psalms.

Most New Testaments rely upon a reconstructed synthetic text that takes into account all variants. But the availability of a single codex shows us the state of how one text looked in antiquity (even if we don't think that is how each individual book "originally" looked). The Codex was originally taken, uh stolen, from a monastery (St. Catherine's at Sinai--thus, "Sinaiticus"), after which several nations vied and argued over ownership.

This particular digital project took the cooperation of Russia, the U.K., Germany, and the original St. Catherine's monastery. The website can be viewed in English, Russian, German, or Greek. I will be adding it to my resources links.

Check it out here! (If you can! When I tried, the site said there were too many concurrent connections--over 100,000 people at one time trying to look at the document!)

Quote of the Day: Psalm 122

Winding up his Middle-East tour, Barack Obama made a surprise pre-dawn visit to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem yesterday, placed a prayer on a slip of paper in one of the cracks, while he and his wife read a Psalm, Psalm 122. This is part of a larger unit of Psalms called the "Songs of Ascents" (Psalms 120-134). Songs of Ascents tend to be shorter than other Psalms, and may have been sung by the Levitical choir on the steps of the temple. This particular Psalm calls for peace, and, I thought, if the Psalm is going to be in the news, why not make it the quote of the day?

I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!

Jerusalem, built as a city
which is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
"May they prosper who love you!
Peace be within your walls,
and security within your towers!"
For my brethren and companions' sake
I will say, "Peace be within you!"
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.

How Liberal is the University?

In the previous post, I noted procedures now in place at Penn State and Temple for students to report liberal bias in the classroom. If, in fact, there is discrimination based upon someone's point of view--one that they can present in the class, be challenged on, but be evaluated on how they present it rather than the view itself--then there is, indeed, a problem.

For a long time, the university in America has been regarded as one of the last bastions of liberalism or progressive thought (from one point of view) or as a hold-out of liberalism left over from the 60s but really having no connection with the rest of society (from another point of view). Although, I should note that the structure or organization of the university is amazingly conservative--a hold-out from the middle ages! Divisions in to the current form of departments is a hold-over from the nineteenth-century, and, in fact, may need to be revised.

Yet, the NYTimes and the Chronicle this past month have issued articles (the latter clearly relies upon the former) discussing a potential shift currently occurring in the university in America, as professors who spent their formative years in the 60s and 70s are now retiring. In this generational shift, what will be the result? Both articles suggest the university as a whole will move to the middle. If so, will there be grievance procedures put in place to protect students from indoctrination in being middle of the road?

Policy against Liberal Bias in the Classroom in PA

Two Pennsylvania universities (Penn State and Temple) have instituted policies that give students pathways to file grievances against professors who have presented biased classroom lessons. It turns out to be a procedure to protect "conservative" students from the "liberal" bias of their professors, which conservative activists have labeled "liberal indoctrination." So, when they grow up and learn things from their parents, churches, or local politicians, that is not "indoctrination" as well? There is a degree to which much learning is indoctrination (whether "liberal" or "conservative" or whatever), and we should avoid creating cookie cutter students who arrive at the exact same conclusions that their professors give them. But more than anything higher education is about getting students to think for themselves, and often that means breaking down previously (and dearly) held conceptions, disabusing them of what they thought they knew. While indoctrination is not allowing students to think for themselves, neither is allowing them to cling to previously held notions that can and should be challenged. With a policy such as this, will professors have less freedom in disabusing students of previously held notions? Although religion courses have not turned up among the complaints, I can just see them rolling in if someone like myself began breaking down the historical development of the Bible alongside the equally divinely inspired literatures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Greece, and Rome.

See the discussion in the Chronicle here.