Old Testament Ethics

This week we’ll study the theme of “Justice and Law” in the Hebrew Bible.  For most of us, the the idea of “justice” probably will be easy to understand.  As we read the Hebrew Bible, from the primordial and patriarchal narratives, to the law, and through the prophets, God’s concern for the poor, the outcast, “the orphan and the widow” is impossible to miss.  This theme is easy to follow into the New Testament, in Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, in the early Church’s practices in the book of Acts, in Paul’s instructions to the local churches, and in the fiery condemnation of the Roman state in the apocalyptic literature.

It’s often much more difficult, however, to understand how some of the particulars of the law given by God to the Hebrew people relate to this theme of “justice,” how they connect to other themes in the New Testament, and how we should understand them today.  During class, we’ll discuss the lex talonis, along with some examples of laws that seem quite harsh — such as Deuteronomy 21:18-21’s injunction that a “stubborn and rebellious son” should be stoned to death by “all the men of the city.”  I’m sure many of us are thankful that this law didn’t apply when we were teenagers!

If we had more time, it would be interesting to discuss in detail how the Old Testament Law plays into the theology of the New Testament.  In fact, I think we could spend an entire year on this subject alone!  This topic includes some very specific concerns, such as which parts of the Old Testament law remain “binding” on us today, as well as some broad theological themes, such as the relationship between “law” and “grace.”

As an example of a specific problem, consider the Old Testament dietary laws.  Significant portions of the Law given to the Hebrews covers details of diet — which foods are “clean” and “unclean.”  These laws provoked one of the first major disputes in Church history, referred to in Acts 15:  should gentile believers in Jesus be required to keep the Jewish Law, including the dietary laws?  The decision of the Jerusalem Council was that the gentiles should be free from the constraints of Jewish law, except that they should “abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.”  (Acts 15:19-20)  The Apostle Paul, however, seemed to exceed the restrictions of the Jerusalem Council in suggesting that Christians could eat any kind of meat, including meat sacrificed to idols — restricted only by concern for the welfare of others who might be drawn into sin.  (See Romans 14:1-13; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; 1 Cor. 10:1-26).  What did Paul really mean here, and what does it suggest for us today?

As an example of the broader tension, consider Paul’s apparently stark contrast between grace and law in Galatians 3:

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly potrayed as crucified?  This is the only thing I want to find out from you:  did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain?  So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of hte Law, or by hearing with faith? . . . . For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse. . . .  (Gal. 3:1-10).

Some theologians, including in particular Martin Luther and other protestant reformers, were led by such passages to draw a sharp distinction between “law” and “grace.”  In this view, the primary purpose of the Bible’s “legal” texts, including even Jesus’ ethical teaching, is demonstrate that people cannot live righteous lives and therefore require grace.  Others, including to some extent the early and Medieval Catholic theologians as well as the Anabaptists, understood the relationship between “law” and “grace” more dynamically, while continuing to insist that human beings ultimately cannot save themselves.  These debates continue today, with a wide range of often starkly conflicting views among Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed and other Protestant theologians.  You may have heard, for example, about arguments over the “New Perspective on Paul,” which in large part is a debate over how Paul viewed the Jewish law.

In the midst of these debates, it might be good to remember that all the various “sides” are seeking to affirm that (a) the moral law is God’s law, which endures and cannot be ignored; (b) all human beings are “fallen” and therefore are unable to satisfy all the demands of the law; and (c) salvation in Christ is by grace alone through faith alone.  These basic truths underlie all Christian thinking and practice concerning justice and the law.

Powerpoint slides are now available on the “Powerpoints” page.

This Sunday, we’re focusing on how “ecology and the land” factor into Old Testament ethics.  Here are some organizations and resources you might find helpful as a supplement to our discussion.

A Rocha — a Christian conservation organization.

The Au Sable Institute — a Christian academic environmental study center.

The Evangelical Environmental Network — publisher of Creation Care magazine.

World Vision — a leading Christian relief and social justice organization.

An Evangelical Manifesto — a well-balanced statement of public ethics that begins to incorporate a vision for economic issues.

Some of the texts we’re reading this week are foundational for all of Christian theology, including theological ethics.  They establish that God is “other” than creation, that creation is purposeful and not merely random or the result of divine whim, that human beings are uniquely gifted and uniquely responsible creatures who were created for joyful fellowship, that the creation as we now know it is marred by human sin, and that God’s purposes for the future include the redemption of all of creation.

These concepts stand in stark contrast to the notions of the gods, creation and humanity that prevailed in the time and place when God first began to call the people of Israel to himself.   Today we have access to many texts from the world of the ancient near east (“ANE”), such as the Babylonian Enuma Elish, which tend to describe the creation as resulting from a cosmic, often viscerally physical, struggle among the gods and human beings as existing only as sort of an afterthought to serve the gods’ arbitrary fancies.  At the same time, the Bible’s creation narratives bear many similarities to other ANE literature such as the Enuma Elish, such as, for example, a cycle in which various elements of the created order are separated from each other.  This leads many Biblical scholars to understand much of the Biblical literature on these themes as a contrasting response to, or “polemic” against, the prevailing cultural views about the nature of God and the functions of the created world and of human beings.

In contrast to both the Biblical and the other prevailing ANE views of the created world, the modern scientific worldview focuses on material or “natural” causes rather than on divine functions or purposes.  This can raise questions about the Biblical texts that many people find difficult and uncomfortable.  How is it, for example, that the Bible can describe God speaking the creation into existence, while contemporary scientists can describe a mind-bogglingly long process of development according to basic physical laws?  Or how is it that the Bible can speak of humanity as being made in “God’s image,” when the modern neurosciences can tell us so much about the governing functions of our physical brains?  And if the natural history uncovered by the modern sciences is generally correct, what does it mean for creation and humanity to be “fallen?”

Ever since the modern scientific method became widely adopted, Christians have disagreed about how to resolve these questions.  Some Christians have argued, and still argue, that some of the basic presuppositions of modern science are fundamentally incorrect, and that the Biblical texts about creation are essentially factual in a scientific sense.  Other Christians have argued, and still argue, that “theological” and “scientific” ways of understanding the world ultimately can be complementary, and that the Biblical texts tend to present theological truths reflecting their ANE context rather than “scientific” truths.  There are numerous nuances among and between these views.

It’s beyond the scope of our study of Old Testament Ethics to address these questions comprehensively.  I have some personal views that I’ve come to after much study and reflection, and below I’ll offers some resources that I’ve found helpful in this regard.  Whatever approach you take, however, the essential themes of our study this week — God’s transcendence over and immanence in creation, the uniqueness of humanity, the reality of sin, the hope of redemption — remain the same.

Some Resources for Further Study

John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One:  Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (IVP Academic 2009)

John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament:  Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Baker Academic 2006)

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, Vol. 1 (Genesis) (Zondervan 2009)

Alister McGrath, Science & Religion:  A New Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell 2nd ed. 2009)

Deborah Haarsma and Loren Haarsma, Origins:  A Reformed Look at Creation, Evolution and Design (Faith Alive 2007)

Nigel Goring Wright, A Theology of the Dark Side:  Putting the Power of Evil in its Place (Intervarsity 2004)

Welcome to the website for the “Old Testament Ethics:  Principles of Living for the People of God” adult learning community at Cornerstone!    Please bookmark this site and check here for information and updates about the course as well as other tidbits of interest.