Dinosaurs, past and present. (Part 1)

Acknowledgement
To the reader, I am not, to use a Xhosa word a “fundi” meaning an expert on what I am about to write, but I am thoroughly enlightened! Much of my ideas for this series are based on a contemporary Boston University historian, Paula Fredriksen’s book, titled, “Jesus of Nazareth - King of the Jews” (published in 2000).

“Boston! Can anything good come from there?” I asked, as I repeat Nathaniel of the New Testament. Most definitely! Fredriksen has skilfully alerted me to anachronistic mistakes that may appear in scholarly projects, with the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) as no exception! The ICOC Bible standard is shallow. Their belief system with their faith firmly set in the Gospel books have probably unbeknown to them raise the rabbinic times of Jesus and the pre-Temple era to the present. “But [this] relevance comes purchased at the price of anachronism.”

The hunt is on
Dinosaurs have once roamed the world - a land before time! It happened so long ago that we refer to this period as pre-historic times. People often refer to things in the past that happened long ago figuratively ‘back when the dinosaurs roamed the world.’ Recently, during the September 2005 Seattle Conference, Steve Johnson used that expression announcing his intentions to continue with the pre-2003 ICOC discipleship policy, which he describe as a “mousetrap,” which eventually landed him a position as an assistant-Lead Evangelist in the Portland International Church of Christ in January 2006. I quote from Dave Anderson’s website: “In Savannah, [Savannah Church of Christ, Georgia] I want to do exactly what I did in Boston in 1979 or in New York in 1983 - with regards to teaching people how to teach people to become disciples. I’ve not come up, and I haven’t seen anyone else that has come up with a better mousetrap. And I assure you that when I see one, I’ll adopt it just like I did when I moved to Boston to be trained by Kip back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.”

Now if it were up to “dinosaurs” to set “mousetraps” then this contraption would look most probably gory or ghastly! “Whack-Attack!” A great deal of ICOC folk, judging from the bloody mousetrap hunt in “Episode 1” are now avoiding a follow-up episode. “Episode 2” is alive and well what I call the Portland Movement. However, at this stage, the happy hunting grounds of “Episode 2,” relies on old traps because they can’t find “better mousetraps” to adopt! Oh! What a bloody mess! If you can’t make out head or tail from this saga, perhaps this series, “Dinosaurs, past and present” might be helpful to you.

Understanding time misplacement and chronology of Jesus’ time
Who can forget films like Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”? Mr Spielberg’s enthralling film is a brilliant example of deliberate anachronism in art and fiction. Jurassic Park manages to ‘collapse time’ by allowing pre-historic events to resurface alongside our time, just like “The Flintstones” cartoons successfully depicts many modern appliances in a pre-historic setting.

Ananchronisms are things that are placed in the wrong time period. This misapprehension of the true state of affairs that drives our imagination to wonder up and down a chronological timeline happens when we misplace events with regard to each other’s chronology. The ‘ana’ in ‘anachronism’ is a prefix derived from Greek referring to ‘upward’ or ‘backward’ and ‘chronos’ means ‘time’. Furthermore, there are two types of anachronisms. A ‘parachronism’ is when the assigned date is too late for the appearance of the anachronism - Spielberg’s dinosaurs, while ‘prochronisms’ occurs when the assigned date is too early for the appearance of the anachronism - the Flintstone’s modern appliances.

A fictional character, John Cullinane, in James A. Michener’s book, titled, “The Source,” excavated a bullet once fired from a British rifle. After examination, he catalogues it 1950 A.D., “but he no sooner done so than he erased the A.D. in some embarrassment and substituted C.E.” Cullinane, “was working in a Jewish country which had formerly been a Muslim country, and here the use of Ano Domini was frowned upon; yet the worldwide system of dating had to be respected. And that required a Before Christ and an After Christ whether Muslims and Jews liked it or not, just as all longitude was measured from an English observatory near London, whether Anglophobes like that or not. So Cullinane wrote his date 1950 C.E., which had originally signified the Christian Era but which was now universally read as Common Era. Dates before Jesus were written B.C.E., Before the Common Era, and this satisfied every one.”

Nevertheless, when the past is surveyed, the worldwide system of dating is based upon Jesus’ birth (+/- 4 B.C.). A chronological timeline connects the trajectory of historical events, just like Cullinane’s bullet passing from the British muzzle to the first point of impact, where it was found. However, historical events may relate periodically ‘before’ or ‘after’ each other’s fixed point of chronology on the timeline.

The cannonical Gospels accurately synchronised the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb as Matthew indicates after “the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,” but it is anyone’s guess in which year of anna Domini (the year of our Lord). Therefore dates of Jesus’ Ascension may vary from 29 - 33 A.D or C.E. Nevertheless, the event of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel narratives becomes an anchor point on the Biblical timeline, dividing events in a pre or post-Resurrection periods.

Some Christians often feel sidelined or intimidated by scholarly work. In the first place, Christians should view it as a challenge to step up from basic Sunday school training and mature beyond “elementary truths of God’s word.” A quote from R.H. Malden’s book, titled, “Problems of the New Testament Today” (published in 1923) concludes, “It is to be feared that many of those who attend Public Worship understand very little of many of the New Testament lessons which they hear read.”

Everyone who wishes to understand the New Testament Chronology must take in consideration the fact that Paul’s letters were written before any of the Four Gospels. Therefore, the earliests Christian text on record belongs to Paul. The 27 books of the New Testament are not arranged in the order they were written. Paul’s epistles, for example, are arranged according to their length - Romans to Philemon. Incidentally, geographic names takes prominence to letters addressed to people.

Paul’s letters contrast significantly with the Gospels. Very little is mentioned about Jesus of Nazareth. If it was not for the Gospel writers rich contribution, precious little would have been known about Jesus’ ministry and what transpired from it, other than snippets in the Epistles of the New Testament. Paul’s earlier groundwork towards free mandates of worship as to be “bound to keep the whole law” (Galatians 5:3 NIV) saved Christianity from the clutches of Judaism. With divine inspiration, Paul, the Hebrew, an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a servant of Christ was chosen to take the New Testament out of the hands of Jewry and to proclaim it in the far places of the world, even possibly as far as Spain! “I have been longing for many years to see you, [The church in Rome] I plan to do so when I go to Spain.” (Romans 15:20-24 NIV)

Jesus’ Jewish audience “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24) contrasts sharply with the Gentile audience Paul targeted, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22) Jesus’ earlier followers continue to keep the Sabbath, (Matthew 23:56, Mark 16:1) while in the post-Resurrection era, the early church in Jerusalem also continued to worship according to the Mosaic tradition. The importance of the Temple in their midst cannot be dismissed. (Luke 24:53; Acts 1:12; 2:46; 3:1; and 5:42) At the time of Stephen’s death, a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, the primitive church was still in the arms of the synagogue. Jews who believed in Christ did not differ in any of the outward signs from Jews who did not believe. The ‘Christian’ Jews still offered sacrifices in the Temple, and still observed the law of Moses, feast days and fasts.

By mid-century, Jewish interpretation of Biblical laws, the ‘halakah,’ prompted an urgent meeting between members of the Jerusalem and Antioch churches after a dispute arise between Gentile and Jewish Christians. Jesus’ message from the outset, as the gospel spread from Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth was contained in three Jewish regions - Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. (Acts 1:8; 2:14; 5:16; 8:1, 4, 25; 9:22, 28, 31) The foremost region was Jerusalem (Luke 24:47,48; Acts 2:5, 11, 14) and “towns around Jerusalem” (Acts 5:16) but “a great persecution broke out against the church of Jerusalem, and all except the apostles, [who were not Hellenised Jews] were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” The Hellenised ‘Christian’ Jews “who had been scattered preached the word everywhere they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria” (Acts 8:4,5) when “the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.” This was necessary so that the Samaritans “might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, they had simply been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:15-17) This sign from the Holy Spirit here, as it later appeared in favour of Cornelius’ household, appeases conflicting notions that might have existed between Palestinian Jews and Samaritans. John’s Jesus interview with the Samaritan woman disallowed disassociation between ethnic groups as indicated above, “Yet, a time is coming and has now come when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.” (John 4) Jesus promise was made good when the Holy Spirit finally intervened, as Philip baptised the Ethiopian eunuch, as Ananias baptised Saul, as Peter baptised Cornelius’ household. What transpired from the meeting in Jerusalem was the fact that God had “opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27) as he had done in the “country of the Jews”. (Acts 10:39)

The Jewish ‘Christian’ community within the country of the Jews in the beginning consisted of the eleven apostles, who elected Matthias as their twelve member (Acts 1:26), “Mary the mother of Jesus” and Jesus “brothers” (Acts 1:14), about 120 believers with them (Acts 1:15), who later expanded to a sizable group by baptising “about three thousand” (Acts 2:38), then “the number of men grew to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4), then “more and more men and women were added to their number [Jewish Christians] (Acts 5:14), and still “the number of disciples was increasing: (Acts 6:1) and finally Paul the apostle for the Gentiles had to reckon “how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.” (Acts 21:20) Thus, the “apostles’ teaching” in Acts 2:42 was primary Jewish inclined. It appears that pre-Temple Jewish ‘Christians’ gradually got use to the idea in accepting Gentiles in their fold, but on their terms! “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18 NIV)

Many scholars place the Epistle of Galatians before Thessalonians, in the early portion of the New Testament (+/- 47, 48 C.E.). Galatians was written to counteract the doctrines of certain Judaistic missionaries who had attempted to undermine the teaching and the apostolic authority of Paul. The question at issue is nothing less than the survival or the disappearance of the Gentile church. Who must come first, Christ or Moses?

When reading Galatians, clear boundaries between Jewish and Gentile ‘Christians’ existed. Paul investigated this matter. “Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.” (Galatians 2:12 NIV) However, as the Thessalonians’ letter state in the same period of Paul’s fact finding meeting. “You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.” “For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.” (1 Thessalonians 2:1, 3-4 NIV)

Today reading Galatians we cannot help to be amazed by Paul’s vision as he publically rebuke Peter and other important figure heads of his time who “were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.” (Galatians 2:14) The ‘apostles’ teaching’ as described by Acts 2:42 compared with Jude’s 17 “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (KJV) is a different story. Early Jewish ‘Christians’ gradually got hold of the ‘abnormally born’ apostles’ teaching on Christ. Paul was against a Judaistic perception of the law that served its purpose until Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,” (Galatians 3:13 “for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21) In short, this ‘Jewish belief system’ is not faith and faith is not based on this ‘Jewish belief system’.

This question was partially settled in the meeting held at Jerusalem by the apostles and elders, alongside with Paul and his own representatives. “Some of the believers who belonged to the party of Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” (Acts 11:5 NIV) Clearly, with such strong sentiments concerning the Gentiles we know that this practice was already accepted as standard practice in the early Jerusalem church, which continued as Acts 21 indicates in the late Jerusalem church. A Gentile Christian was perceived as a type of proselyte as Jews view Gentiles ‘going over to the Jews.’ At best, some Jewish ‘Christians’ in the region of Judea, apparantly “without [the apostles and elders] authorisation” (Acts 15:24) “came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1 NIV) Parties involved “met to consider this question” and James dismissed the meeting without compromising Jewish ‘Christian’ standards while Gentile Christians followed a semi-ruling partially based on the law of Moses. “It is my judgement, therefore that we [Jewish Christians] should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God ... For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times [“back when the dinosaurs roamed the world”] and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath” ... Gentile Christians “are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.” (Acts 15) Nevertheless, Paul won an important dispute “before the saints.” (1 Corinthians 6:7) These requirements is beautifully explored by Paul in his Epistles in order for Gentile ‘Christians’ to find the fuller meaning in Christ rather being exploited wrongly by the circumcision group.

The Jewish element had been shed over the centuries as songs from the Kids Kingdom (ICOC Sunday school) ring out tunes such as “Building up the Temple” probably pass us by without thinking much about it. The children while singing act out the building of the temple of God with their small hand over hand gestures reaching higher and higher. Perhaps, it is ironic that as little children we learn about the Temple while as grown ups we cast its’ lessons aside. Symbolically the Temple becomes Jesus’ body, “Destroy this temple, [Jesus’ body] and I will raise it again in three days.” Christian’s bodies in the post-Resurrection era is perceived as ‘living sacrifices’ or ‘temples.’ “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV)

Phoenicians, who, having no architecture of their own, borrowed from the architecture of Egypt and Assyria, built Solomon’s Temple. The later Temple that Herod the Great built, and in which Jesus taught, was no doubt borrowed from Greece and the architecture of the Hellenistic age, for the Jews never created a national architecture. And how curious it is that the building which now stands on the same site is also a piece of borrowed architecture. By sight, the temple site of Jerusalem, despite its stormy history now stands radical transformed. To rebuild the Temple to its former glory, will be no child’s play! Standing in its place is the Kubbet-es-Sakhra, (Harem-es-Sherif) or Dome (Mosque) of the Rock, which is the most sacred Muslim shrine outside Mecca!

Throughout early Christian history the Christians of Jerusalem wished this site to remain a vacant ruin in order that the words of Jesus might be literally fulfilled, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” All the city rubbish of Byzantine Jerusalem was carted to the site of the Temple, so that when the Mohammedans captured the city, the Caliph Omar had to crawl on his hands and knees over accumulated refuse into the place where the Temple had been. So great was the neglect that difficulty was experienced even in finding the Sakhrah, the site of the sacred rock. If a Christian goes there today, he or she must conform to certain rules, just as the Gentile was obliged to conform to the rules of the Jewish Temple.

It was built in 688 C.E. to the orders of the Caliph Abd el Melek, but Arab architects did not design it, because Arab architecture had not yet developed. A huge white platform holds the domed octagonal building. This platform and building occupy, the site of the inner sanctuaries of the Temple of Solomon. The mosque is built over an outcrop of rock on which the Jewish Altar of Burnt Offerings once stood. The Dome of the Rock is the same today as it was when the Byzantines built it for the Arabs in 688 C.E. Vast spaces to the south are the renowned sites of an ancient court of the Gentiles. Formerly, in the pre-Temple era, a barrier separated Gentiles from coming near the Holy of Holies. All strangers were warned of the consequence of facing instant death by frequent notices in Latin, Greek and Hebrew to stay out! The fortress of Antonia stands today where Paul was taken to safety in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 21.

Suppose, like Spielberg’s dinosaurs, we manage to bring back pre-Temple period worshippers to the present site of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. How will they react surveying this place? Judging from a scenario in the pre-Temple period ‘our pre-Temple dinosaurs’ will faint from shock! “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place [Temple]. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” (Acts 21:28,29 NIV)

Clearly, the lesson we must take to heart is “though history is always done backward, life is only lived forward.” Therefore, like Spielberg’s Jurassic Park film, ‘dinosaurs’ of the past mingling along with our contemporaries is dangerous! Likewise, an anachronism, “the viewing of persons or events out of their own historical context, is the first and last enemy of the historian.” Just how much this is evident in the ICOC belief system is startling.

Making informative choices base on a better overview on the New Testament might combat over zealous ICOC trappers.

* “Dinosaurs past and present (Part 2) is coming soon!