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THEOLOGYTHE CORAM DEO JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY

Psalms 1-30 & the Gospel of John

A Life of Theology: The Coram Deo Journal of Theology is a collection of articles, es-says, reviews, and reflections on the presence of God in all areas of life.

For questions about the Journal or for more information on how to submit an article, email Mr. Jon Jordan: jon.jordan@coramdeoacademy.org

Coram Deo Academy educates youth in a historic Christian worldview through a vigorous classical curriculum. The goal of CDA is to train ethical servant leaders and wise thinkers who will shape culture for the glory of God.

For more information about Coram Deo Academy, visit:http://coramdeoacademy.org

THE SUMMER READING ISSUE

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“But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the

books that would be written.”

From the earliest days of Christianity, the church has maintained that the good news of God in Christ is best understood through the lens of both Testa-ments. This summer we will continue our tradition of reading an Old Testament text alongside a New Testament text. Our assigned summer Scripture readings are Psalms 1-30 and the Gospel according to John.

This summer marks the beginning of our five-year journey through the book of Psalms. We begin this summer by reading the first thirty Psalms. This issue contains an introduction to Psalms 1-30 as well as a reflection on the significance of memorizing the Psalms. I encourage you to choose at least one Psalm to memo-rize this summer.

Our New Testament selection is the Gospel of John. Few New Testament books are as popular as the Fourth Gospel, and chances are you have already read this wonderful account of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. I encourage you to read it again with fresh eyes. I have found that this is best done by reading the Gospel in a different translation or listening to an audio recording.

Our hope is that your time in Scripture as a family and as a community this summer is enriched by these guides, introductions, and articles. We look forward to a year of reflecting together on what we read this summer.

Jon Jordan, Dean of StudentsAscension Day, 2014

FROM THE EDITOR

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The following suggested reading schedules will provide you two options for completing our summer Scripture Reading. The first schedule will allow you to

complete the reading over the course of four weeks. The second schedule will allow you to complete the reading over the course of eight weeks. We hope that these

guides are helpful for you as you determine which approach is best for your family.

READING SCHEDULES

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DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7

WEEK 1

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

P: 1

J: 1

P: 2

J: 2

P: 3

J: 3

P: 4

J: 4

P: 5

J: 5

P: 6

J: 6

P: 7

J: 7

P: 8

J: 8

P: 9

J: 9

P: 10

J: 10

P: 11

J: 11

P: 12

J: 12

P: 13

J: 13

P: 14

J: 14

P: 15

J: 15

P: 16

J: 16

P: 17

J: 17

P: 18

J: 18

P: 19

J: 19

P: 20

J: 20

P: 21

J: 21

P: 22-23 P: 24-25 P: 26 P: 27 P: 28 P: 29 P: 30

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7

WEEK 1

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

WEEK 5

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

WEEK 8

P: 1 P: 2 P: 3 P: 4 P: 5 P: 6 P: 7

P: 8 P: 9 P: 10 P: 11 P: 12 P: 13 P: 14

P: 15 P: 16 P: 17 P: 18 P: 19 P: 20 P: 21

P: 22 P: 23 P: 24 P: 25 P: 26 P: 27 P: 28

P: 29 P: 30 J: 1 J: 2 J: 3 J: 4 J: 5

J: 6 J: 7 J: 8 J: 9 J: 10 J: 11 J: 12

J: 13 J: 14 J: 15 J: 16 J: 17 J: 18 J: 19

J: 20 J: 21 Catch-up Catch-up Catch-up Catch-up Catch-up

The Gospel of John has served as an introduction to the Christian faith for many throughout the centuries of Christianity. The author’s literary style and relatively sim-ply language (the Gospel of John is usually the Koine Greek student’s first translation assignment) has helped contribute to the Gospel’s enduring legacy. As popular as the Gospel is today and has been since its writing, there have been many differing views throughout the centuries regarding the authorship and date of this Gospel. Which “John” wrote the Gospel? Was there perhaps a Johannine community that helped shape the text? Why was John written so much later than the other canonical Gos-pels? For an excellent discussion of these debates, see the article “Book of John” in The Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible and the article “Gospel of St. John” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.

As with the other canonical Gospels, John’s earliest Greek title is κατά Ιωάννην, “according to John.” The Fourth Gospel is not John’s Gospel per se, but rather the Gos-pel according to John. There is only one Gospel message, which has been revealed to the Church in a four-fold account. Irenaeus, the second century Bishop of Lyons, puts it like this: “These four gospels are in actual fact one single Gospel, a fourfold Gospel inspired by the one Spirit, a Gospel which has four aspects representing the work of the Son of God.” For centuries, the Church has affirmed the need for hearing one sin-gle Gospel message from four different voices. As you read John and notice differ-ences between it and the other Gospel accounts, seek to learn from these differences rather than attempt to overly-harmonize them. Instead of worrying why some Gospels differ on Jesus’ final words, for example, ask yourself what John might be trying to teach us by sharing Jesus’ infamous “It is finished” (John 19:30) instead of some of the other things Jesus is reported to have said.

Regardless of one’s answers to these important questions, Christianity has main-tained that the Gospels—John included—provide the clearest picture of the good news of God in Christ.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

ARTICLE 1

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A brief introduction

The Psalms served as the hymnal and prayer book for the Hebrews living in the centu-ries leading up to the coming of Jesus. When faced with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus—and all the changes brought by the New Covenant—the Chris-tian Church maintained this ancient Hebrew practice (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16). By the 8th century, memorizing the Book of Psalms was a requirement for those seeking the office of Bishop (see Knowing by Heart). Many Christian traditions today continue to ready, sing, and pray through the Psalms on a regular cycle.

Most scholars throughout history have held that David is the author of most of the individual Psalms. Some ancient and modern scholars have noted, however, that many of the Psalms appear to be written by another author or group of authors. There is relatively strong agreement among scholars that the first 30 Psalms all come from David. For these Psalms, it is often helpful to read the corresponding passage in 2 Sam-uel that gives further insight into the situation from which David is writing. For our se-lection this summer, two in particular stand out: Psalm 3 appears to correspond with the events of 2 Samuel 15-17, and Psalm 18 with those events found in 2 Samuel 22.

There is almost unanimous consent among scholars that Psalm 1 serves as an in-tentional introduction to the entire book of Psalms. In this Psalm, attention is drawn to the following of God’s law, instruction, and will. Instead of being understood as the beginning of a legalistic collection of prayers and songs, Psalm 1 has historically been understood as creating a framework for understanding that the following of God’s will for human life leads to blessing (1:1), delight (1:2), yielding of fruit and prospering (1:3), and being known by God (1:6). These blessings have not historically been under-stood as always being physical in nature—a quick look at history and Scripture reveals that physical and material prosperity is rarely a mark of God’s people. The true bless-ing, rather, of a life lived in obedience to God’s will is found in the final verse: being known and counted as righteous by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. May this truth be on our minds and in our hearts as we read through Psalms 1-30 this sum-mer.

PSALMS 1-30

ARTICLE 2

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A brief introduction

“When we recite the psalter, we promise God: ‘I will meditate upon thy statutes, and will not forget thy words.’ It is a salutary thing for all Christians to observe this, but it is especially incumbent upon those who have received the sacerdotal

dignity. Therefore we decree, that everyone who is raised to the rank of the episco-

pate shall know the psalter by heart.” – Canon II of the Seventh Ecumenical

Council in 787AD

In a Google world, memory no longer seems to hold much value. Modern educa-tors may speak about creativity and critical thinking, but developing the memory is not a priority. This has not been the attitude for most of human history. The ancients reserved the greatest respect and ascribed great genius and moral character to those who had developed the art of memory. For them, memory wasn’t simply a list of facts held in the mind, but it was a way to “know by heart.” The memory was the primary tool of invention and contemplation, the ability to make judgments and meditate upon ideas and then express them in the spoken or written word. The ancients developed so-phisticated techniques for building a usable memory, and the church put these to the service of memorizing the scriptures, especially the Book of Psalms.

The Psalter of the Old Testament was the prayer book of the Church and as such it was the primary source for the ancient liturgies and services of prayer. One could hear the entire Psalter chanted or sung each week by attending the various daily prayer services and the Divine Liturgy on Sundays. These words would then become the words that Christians could speak in order to cry out to God in their personal prayers. Knowing them by heart became a priority in Christian homes and in the church. Through diligent study and the use of various techniques, all 150 psalms could

KNOWING BY HEART

ARTICLE 3

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The Psalter and the Art of Memory

be memorized in two to four years. One example of how this could be done is found in Hugh of St. Victor’s twelfth century manual for memorizing the Psalms.

Most of Hugh’s students would have come to him with a working knowledge of the Psalter through years of hearing, chanting, and singing in the services of the church. As most of us are aware, a song can be an effective way to memorize, but it has its limitations, especially in the case of lengthy material. For example, in memorizing the English alphabet it is very common to learn the “ABC” song. Most of us will never forget this song. But if one wants to know where the letter “S” falls in the sequence, one must sing the entire song. Perhaps not too big of a problem, but if you had to sing the entire Psalter to find a particular reference or thought it wouldn’t be very practical. So Hugh developed a system that would enable his students to find any word, topic, or idea at any point in the Psalter and to cross-reference that with the same word, topic, or idea in any other psalm. His memory would function much like a concordance of words, phrases, and ideas and be a remarkable source for speaking, writing, and prayer. Here is his method in brief:

1. The student would begin by visualizing a grid with 150 locations, one for each psalm. The grid and the numbers themselves in each box would all be held in the mind.

2. Then the student would add the beginning line of each psalm to the grid and number. For example, the first box in the grid would contain the number “1” and the text “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly”. In this way a complete reference system for all 150 psalms would be in place.

3. Finally, the individual psalms would then be added line by line to the grid, one psalm at a time.

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It isn’t hard to imagine the rich spiritual benefits and wisdom that might have been gained by those who had learned the Psalms by heart. As Hugh of St. Victor writes:

“Children, knowledge is a treasury and your heart is its strongbox. As you study all of knowledge, store up for yourselves good treasures, immortal treasures, incorruptible treasures, which never decay nor lose their look of brightness.”

Robert Terry, Director of Finance

For those interested in exploring this topic further I recommend:• Carruthers, Mary. The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Cul-

ture published by Cambridge - an in-depth and scholarly (advanced) look at the motivations and techniques of ancient memory. The primary source for this arti-cle.

• Vost, Kevin. Memorize the Faith! Using the Methods of the Great Catholic Me-dieval Memory Masters published by Sophia Institute Press – a fun and easy in-troduction to medieval memory techniques that will help you memorize any list. Get this before your next test.

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The Apostle John, towards the end of his account of the Gospel, states his purpose in writing his work:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:30-31)

While the author's explicit intent is clear at the end, what is equally compelling is how he begins it. After opening his Gospel with echoes of Genesis 1:1, "In the begin-ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1), the Apostle follows with a peculiar declaration, "14 And the Word became flesh and d-welt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Living Word, the One who was God and with God, the One who was the Son from the Father, is described as taking on flesh and dwelling among people. In Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, the Message, he writes, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." But what is it like when God shows up? Is it terrifying? Comforting? Both? John describes, as an eye-witness, that he is one who has actually seen "his glory," and describes this glorious God-man as being "full of grace and truth."

What follows throughout the rest of John's gospel is a series of eyewitnesses, who along with John would be to testify of this "grace and truth." Among the eyewit-nesses are the honest but blunt Nathaniel (John 1), the religious leader Nicodemus (John 3), an official whose son was at the point of death (John 4), a man who cannot walk (John 5), a man who cannot see (John 9), and two sisters whose brother Jesus

HE DWELT AMONG US

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raises from the dead (John 11). Of course, the ultimate testimony comes at the end of the book as the disciple turned skeptic, upon seeing the risen Christ, cries out "my Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). In the midst of story after story of the Incarnate Word "full of grace and truth," one eyewitness testimony that stands out is of an un-named woman, only known by her ethnicity, reputation, and predicament: the sinful "Samaritan woman at the well" (John 4:7-42).

The woman, ostracized, apparently has gone out to gather water at noon, an un-characteristically hot time of the day, because she has been alienated from her commu-nity. She had gone from one marriage to another and was currently in a relationship outside of marriage (John 4:17-18). Jesus takes the initiative with her. It came as a sur-prise to the woman that Jesus, a Jew, would have anything to do with a Samaritan (who culturally speaking were enemies with the Jews) (vv.7-9). How would the holy, perfect God respond to this sinful, broken woman? In grace and truth. He begins cross-ing the divide by asking her to provide him water (v.7). Quickly, the conversation moves from the water at the well to the spiritual water He offers through His grace that would quench the thirst of the soul (vv.8-14). After further discussion, she asks for this water that only He can offer--and then He speaks truth. He lets her know that she is living in a sinful, broken relationship (vv. 17-18). He lets her know that salvation does, indeed, come through the Messiah who comes from the Jews (vv.21-22). Throughout the process Jesus has communicated through His Word and actions that yes, indeed, God is holy and does not ignore sin. Yet in His grace, love, and accep-tance, He invites sinful people to come to the light and be healed.

The Word became flesh. The God unseen reveals Himself perfectly through His Son, the God-man, and we see the picture that is so amazing and almost too-good-to-be true, but it is not: He is full of grace and truth. The uniqueness of Christianity is in a God who knows and understands sinful and broken humanity all too well and in-stead of creating guidelines for us to try to reach Him, comes down to us. In the study of the Gospel of John, we see Jesus, close up with real people who faced real problems, reaching through the sin and darkness to the heart in order to transform it. Whatever stage of life one finds themselves in, it is this reminder that brings life, hope and the

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gratitude that God had stepped in to our neighborhood and offered us something much greater than the judgment that we deserved (John 3:16-17).

Toby Oaks, Collin County Campus Administrator

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