Brettler's Biblical Hebrew

I purchased a number of books from DoveSellers and they arrived in good order yesterday. I was extremely pleased to have bought Marc Zvi Brettler, Biblical Hebrew for Students of Modern Israeli Hebrew (Yale University, 2002). The book cover is beautiful and its size is larger than usual, written with good-size fonts easy on the eyes. I could not put down the book as I began to read in the evening throughout the night.

I learned much from Brettler's fairly novel approach and at least a third of the materials (I got up to ch. 5) is new or rephrased in a way that is illuminating, at least to a struggling student of Classical Hebrew like me. I have a fair collection of Biblical Hebrew introductory grammars including Weingreen, Lambdin, Page-Kelley, Seow and Brettler's book will be a nice addition to the collection. Alas, it is unlikely that I will have the time to go through the whole book like so many Hebrew and Greek texts I own. But it will look good on my shelf and at least will serve as reminder once a while that I must improve on my Hebrew before I visit the Holy Land one day, the Lord willing.

The Calling

It is getting rarer by the day that we hear theologians and scholars speak of the calling. Much of theological study is book knowledge based on human reasoning in the spirit of a post-enlightenment milieu. But God's calling of an individual to His service remains one great theme of the Bible, in both the OT and the NT.

God called and spoke with Abraham. God chose Jacob over Esau. God was with Joseph (Genesis). God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus), God's charge to Joshua (Josh 1:1-8), God's choice of David are the foundational narratives of Israelite religion. Without such calling of individuals, there will be no covenant and no nation of Israel. Needless to say, all the prophets (from Isaiah to Malachi) had a divine sense of God's call - an indelible and unassailable conviction that they have met with the Divine and are compelled to obey the one invisible God.

The NT is no different. Jesus himself had a clear sense of God's call in his life. When he was only 12, he told his earthly parents: "Why do you look for me; do not you that I must be about my Father's business?" (Greek, literally, the things of my Father). Peter was himself picked by Jesus as the rock, the leader among Jesus' original 12 disciples. Paul's encounter with the risen Christ is the stuff of legend. God's call on Paul's life transformed a murderous religious zealot to the greatest apostle ever lived. 90% of the churches mentioned in the NT owed their existence to Paul and his team of associates.

Do you know the call of God in your life? I am not asking whether you are a MDiv or a PhD. Even non-Christians can gain MDivs and PhDs by the truckloads. I am not asking whether you are ordained or recognized by your denomination's leaders. The American Episcopal Church has just passed a resolution allowing ordination into all forms of ministry including the Bishopric for gays and lesbians. You may be called the Most Rev. Right Rev or even the Pope, but there is no guarantee you belong to God. I am not asking whether you have all the connections and blessings from family and church.

What I am asking is whether you have met the Divine within the solitude of your spirit. What I am asking is whether you have heard that divine voice calling your name as He called, "Samuel, Samuel". What I am asking is whether you have encountered the Person - I AM who is the God Almighty, Creator of the Universe. If you have, it will revolutionize your life. You will never be the same. Everything that you do even though you may be in preparation for ministry takes on a new light. You do everything for one purpose and for one reason - to please the One. John the Baptist was in the wilderness until the time came for him to be manifested to Israel.

When I left my career, it was God's call. No one supported me. My father was most disappointed. I had to choose between pleasing my earthly or heavenly Father. When I left my profession, it was in obedience to God's call. Although I had earned enough to pay off my business debts including a $60,000 student loan, there was no guarantee I had enough finances to go for theological study.

Anyone who has heard the call will not hesitate. You can't figure out everything ahead of you. You walk by faith and not by sight. When I arrived in Auckland, my family and I lived in a motel near the Baptist College at Remuera for about a week before we moved to a rented flat. I was already one day late into my Greek intensive class. My sole purpose was to learn Hebrew and Greek. I could not care less what other subjects I took. I just wanted to understand the Bible in its original languages. Paperchase or trying for easy papers never crossed my mind.

When you are called of God, you will never fret over where you will be sent to serve. You serve the Lord Christ and not your President or Bishop. Submitting to human leaders is surely a Christian grace and nowadays a much needed quality among would-be ministers, but submitting one's life into God's hand in obedience to his call has greater rewards.

I still consider my happiest time in ministry being sent to the jungle of Borneo with no electricity, no fridge, and no computer. Like John the Baptist, I had to spend time in the wilderness learning to trust God day in and day out. My monthly salary was 4% of my former income in my secular job. Even when I was elected into the top leadership, I was paid only RM200.00 more. My Church/Denomination is the most egalitarian there is and I like it that way. All of us from the head of the Church, our President to the most junior minister is called, "Pastor". Ps. is my only "title" and I am proud of it. When asked by my fellow pastors at a Pastors' Conference in 2003 on how they should address me, I told them: "Don't call me "Dr.", just Tony will do." Did not Jesus say, "all of you are brothers and do not call another, 'Rabbi', etc?" How often we do willfully neglect Jesus' plain teaching. Those who are called of God will care less for titles and honourifics. Paul never called himself Apostle Paul. He said, "I, Paul". When he defends his apostleship he is not defending his title but his calling as an apostle and his calling as apostle is bound up with the very heart of the gospel he preaches.

Are you called of God? Can you say like Elijah, "I stand before Yhwh whom I serve". No title, no degree, no putting up a show, no religious garment, no wearing of cross. Just girded with camel's hair, rough and unspoilt by the world, he brought down judgment on kings and queen, killed all the prophets of Baal and Asherah and brought God's nation back to covenantal faithfulness with Yhwh.

Why Study Greek? Part 3

I experienced something unusual at Chapel this morning. I was following the NT reading for the day from Ephesians 2:11-22. I was totally lost by the third verse as I was reading my New Jerusalem Bible and the reader might have been reading from NIV or some other version. With the multiplication of diverse versions in English nowadays, liturgical reading of the text is getting more and more difficult and may I say incomprehensible. Gone were the days that King James Version is the only (or main) version used by English speaking churches for more than 300 years (1611 to 1950s) before translations and multiple versions came on the scene from mid 20th century onwards. Now it is smogaboard of English versions, each claiming to be the best (or most inspired!) version. The layperson is at a lost to decide which version to use.

In my experience of pastoring a Malay-speaking congregation in Sabah, I have no problems with different translations as traditionally we used only one version, the Alkitab Bahasa Indonesia from the Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia (LAI). It is still the best version though we now have a modern Malay version from Bible Society of Malaysia which is really a paraphrase translation and no where as good as the Alkitab Indonesia.

How wonderful it will be if all the English congregations can agree to use just one version for reading and preaching, but alas this is an impossible dream. Thus, my sixth reason for studying Greek is that you get to know the original text (or as close as possible to the originals as none of the original autographs survived) and do not need to rely on English translations and wondering all the time which is the better translation. For this reason alone, I am using my Greek New Testament more and more nowadays.

Why Study Greek? Part 2

I am re-posting one of my more popular blogposts, "Why Study Greek?" which is still receiving many hits after almost two years since I first wrote it (12th Sept 2007). I thought this post might be of interest to prospective Greek students.

Yesterday, I had my first lectures for the new academic year. I am teaching Greek 1 again, only this time with a new textbook, Clayton Croy's A Primer of Biblical Greek (Eerdmans, 2007). With one year of teaching Greek experience, I expect this year to be less stressful. I thoroughly enjoyed giving yesterday's lectures. At the last minute we had to shift to a larger lecture hall as we had 43 students enrolled with 3 M.Th. students sitting in and 2 or 3 more interested parties, one of whom told me that he was going to enrol in the course at the end of the 3-hour long session.

John Calvin's 500th Birthday

"The sum of the Gospel is, not without good reason, made to consist in repentance and forgiveness of sins; and therefore, where these two heads are omitted, any discussion concerning faith will be meagre and defective, and indeed almost useless." Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, ch. 3.1

I am three days late in commemorating the greatest pastor-theologian ever lived, John Calvin of Geneva. In my undergraduate years, I talked so much about Luther and Calvin that some of my friends thought I was a Lutheran or Calvinist. I am neither. My good friend, now a senior pastor at a Baptist church in Auckland gifted me with a picture of Martin Luther when I left for Sabah to take up my first posting as a Bible teacher in the interior of Borneo. For many years I hanged the picture of Luther in my office. For me, Luther-Calvin combination was a rare theological double act, two personalities who have changed the course of world history, and not only European history.

John Calvin was first and foremost a pastor and his theology derived from his pastoral care for his congregation in Geneva. At that time the Genevan church was looked upon like the perfect model of the kingdom of heaven on earth where almost all Genevans subscribed to Calvin's theology and pastoral oversight.

I quoted Calvin on repentance because I found solace and comfort that my previous post on "Repentance" has the support of the great Calvin. Beside the Bible, Calvin's Institutes and Augustine's Confessions have been my constant companions for almost twenty years. I never moved anywhere without these two books.

John Calvin was very much aware of his human limitations and frailty but he marveled at the grace of God for calling him into the ministry of the Gospel. He wrote,

"Those who think that the authority of the doctrine is impaired by the insignificance of the men who are called to teach, betray their ingratitude; for among the many noble endowments with which God has adorned the human race, one of the most remarkable is, that he deigns to consecrate the mouths and tongues of men to his service, making his own voice to be heard in them." Book 4, ch. 1.5.

Repentanceless Christianity

It must be the coffee at McDonald's as I find it always reinvigorating to read the Bible at my favourite place. I read chapter 1 of Mark's Gospel in Greek and chapters 2 & 3 in English tonight. Although in my view of things, I would put John's Gospel first followed closely by Matthew second and Luke third, Mark's Gospel is one powerful piece of writing. The start is brilliant, no birth story, no genealogy but straightaway - the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

I was struck by its beauty, more so in Greek. There is a directness, almost a roughness in Mark but with potent power in its choice of words to convey spiritual truths about Jesus.

The gospel of Jesus Christ begins with the appearance and announcement of John the Baptist almost as abrupt as the frst sentence. By verse 3 in the 1st ch. we already know that John is to come and to cry out (crying out , participle in Greek) in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

What did John preach? A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Baptisma metavoias eis aphesin hamartion. The preposition eis (into) shows the connection between repentance and the forgiveness of sins of which baptism is the ritual by which a person who repents has his sins forgiven. Thus, if there is no repentance there will be no forgiveness of sins. As Mark is believed to be Peter's mouthpiece (Mark's Gospel bearing Peter's imprint), it is no wonder that in Luke's Acts, Peter's first sermon is recorded as saying: "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). In Acts as in Mark's Gospel, forgiveness of sins is associated with repentance. There are two sides of the same coin, distinct but yet inseparable.

Mark goes on to explain what repentance entails as in vs. 5, those being baptized by John in the Jordan river were "confessing their sins". Again close to Lukan witness in Acts, John while baptizing in water preached that, "He [Jesus] will baptize with the Holy Spirit" (1:8).

I was struck by the theology of the first eight verses of Mark's Gospel - in a short narrative, it explains what the Gospel /good news of Jesus Christ in a nutshell: Repent, confessing sins and receiving forgiveness through baptism in water followed by baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Yet nowadays, I see repentanceless Christianity everywhere. People claiming to be Christians do not show the fruits of repentance. If they were into partying, they keep to their partying ways, if they are into immorality, they keep to their immoral ways. A Kiwi friend (a non-Christian) was so disgusted with Christians generally in NZ that he said, "90% of Christians I know who go to Church live together before marriage." I am sad to say that this friend's statement has some truth in it.

I am surprised that Michael Jackson was praised unreservedly by some Christians who ought to know better. I understand and I agree that when a person passed away we want to remember his good things and not try to dig up dirt. But Christians must balance the respect shown to the dead and also the truth that we are bound to uphold. MJ in worldly terms maybe a great person. But look at his life. Rejecting his own self, he tried to remake himself through plastic surgery and fame brought upon anxiety and vanity which led to dependency on drugs and pain killers. For almost a decade before his death no one wanted to know him because of child molestation accusations.

When I was a teenager, MJ and John Travolta were my idols. I was very much into partying and disco. In fact, I knew quite a few of MJ's and Travolta's dance moves. But when I became a Christian in 1982, the first thing that I did, my repentance and confessing of my sins was to throw away all my MJ's and Bee Gees' cassettes. I know at that moment MJ's songs were not holy and the songs were not something I should listen if I wanted to please the Lord.

I began to worship God and listen to Christian songs. I was filled with joy of the Holy Spirit and the things of the world became history. Heavenly music and God's presence was so sweet and holy, while MJ's songs were vulgar and unholy.

I am still surprised that some Christians enjoy listening to these worldly songs. When you have tasted the honey of heaven, why would you like the vomits of the world? When spiritual songs bring you into God's presence, why listen to profanity, vulgarity and unholy lyrics? This is repentanceless Christianity. A Christianity that does not know to distinguish good from evil, holy from the worldly and right from wrong. John the Baptist would say to us today: "Repent!"

Rev Dr John Sweet (R.I.P.)

I am not into writing about news of people passing away but I am saddened to hear that Rev Canon Dr. John Sweet of Cambrdge University has died ( see Mark Goodacre's NT Blog). He was the external examiner of my dissertation. At that time (2003), he was semi-retired but still supervising a number of PhD candidates at Cambridge University. I was delightfully surprised to receive a letter and emails from Dr. Sweet, one was a 3-page long hand-written letter engaging and interacting with my doctoral thesis, making numerous suggestions beside the initial 2-page examiner's report. I was very glad and grateful to receive extensive feedback from him. Through another email, Dr. Sweet asked for my permission to let my yet unpublished thesis to be read by his PhD students at Cambridge. Needless to say, I was more than happy to oblige. Regrettably I did not include Dr. John Sweet in the acknowledgement/Preface of my book (published in 2005) as I did not have the time to incorporate what he had so kindly suggested. When I was offered the contract by T & T Clark in early 2004, I was into my second year of pastorate then and was too occupied in the ministry to do much revision except to add some new references. But the publishers were very obliging and guess who - the editor (LSNT series) is none other than Assoc. Professor Mark Goodacre. Now I think it must be Dr. Sweet's positive remarks about my thesis that persuaded the editor to accept my work for publication.

College Retreat

College Retreat ended today with sports and games. We began with a Communion Service at Chapel and the Principal preached a refreshing sermon on the prophetic role of the servants of God based on Amos 7. I was much encouraged. Later we had our Family Group time and this year I am going to have 10 members in my group. We have a good mix from four different countries both postgrads and undergrads. It's called a Retreat but it's actually more of an orientation or continuation of the orientation commenced the day before. The most exciting time for me was my visit to the Students' Lounge where a rep from SKS bookstore was parked for nearly 2 hours and students by their year of study came to collect their pre-ordered books. I wanted to pick up my new edition with CD by Clayton Croy but lo and behold someone else got it before me. All the Greek texts were sold out! By the last count 39 students have enrolled in my Greek class and four more asked to audit the course throughout the day. It's going to be interesting teaching Greek to more than 40 students. We'll see what happens. We did have a lot of fun playing games in the afternoon and I can see that the organizing committee had put in a lot of work. Congratulations and thank you for a wonderful Retreat.