Encounters with Jesus. Ben Witherington III
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Encounters with Jesus - Ben Witherington III страница
Название: Encounters with Jesus
Автор: Ben Witherington III
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Религия: прочее
isbn: 9781532698279
isbn:
ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS
Ben Witherington III
ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS
Copyright © 2020 Ben Witherington III. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Cascade Books
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-9825-5
hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-9826-2
ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-9827-9
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Witherington III, Ben
Title: Encounters with Jesus / Ben Witherington III.
Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-9825-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-9826-2 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-9827-9 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ—Biography | Bible stories—New Testament
Classification: BT302 W58 2020 (print) | BT302 (ebook)
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Manufactured in the U.S.A. September 8, 2020
Preface
The Gospels are episodic accounts of the life of Jesus, by which I mean they are necessarily very selective in their presentation of Jesus’ life and work. We could have deduced this easily enough from the remark at the end of the Fourth Gospel which states “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). This book is not an attempt to tell or imagine more stories from the life of Jesus (on which see my The Gospel of Jesus), but rather to fill in some of the gaps in the stories that we do have in the canonical Gospels. In particular, this book is an attempt to let those whom Jesus touched, healed, helped, tell their own stories while drawing on the Gospel accounts verbatim.
Let me be clear that what is going on here is historical reconstruction, not flights of fancy, or the turning of Jesus’ life into pulp fiction. Based on what can be known about the context in which these events happened (the historical, social, archaeological, religious contexts), I have sought to give a dramatic presentation of what it might have been like to talk with those Jesus touched, and get their reaction to the miracles and happenings that changed their lives. I am not attempting to add to, or subtract from, what we have in the Scriptures, but rather to creatively present a broader canvas, a wider framework in which to better understand the Scriptural texts. Yes, this involves some creativity, but not creativity for its own sake. If this helps these stories come to light in fresh ways, I am content. I have generally quoted the Gospels from the NIV with small variations where I thought they made mistakes. I thank Stan Gundry and Zondervan for permission to use the old NIV in this little novella. The Scriptures portions are in italics, but without including verses in the text so you will read these narratives as they were originally heard—as continuous stories.
One more thing. I have chosen to use a few more original forms of various of the important names in these stories, so you can get a feel for how these people were originally named and called in Jesus’ own day. Here’s a short list:
Jesus=Yeshua=Joshua
Mary=Miriam
James=Jacob
Lazarus=Eliezar
God=G-d (Jews avoided saying God’s name due to reverence)
A few place names as well are modified to be more like the original for example Migdal is the town of Mary Magdalene, so she’s really Miriam of Migdal.
Christmas 2019
This study is dedicated to two of my former NT doctoral students who now have their PhDs—Judith Odor and Joy Vaughan. May the women in half of these vignettes inspire your ongoing ministry.
And for Mimi Haddad. Thanks for all your wonderful hard work for the CBE and for your unfailing support for women in ministry.
BW3
CHAPTER ONE
JOHN THE BAPTIZER
“I remember that the heat was severe, but by then my disciples had gotten used to it. I, for my part, spent so much time in the desert and in the Jordan that it didn’t much bother me. Besides, my time in the Essene community by the Salt Sea had hardened me when it comes to heat. When people asked why the Essenes had so many mikvehs1 and water rituals, I just laughed. When you are living in the salt flats, all you think about is water to sooth your fevered brow. That saying from Isaiah was our theme—“a voice crying: in the wilderness make straight a highway for our G-d.” The Essenes interpreted that to mean that they needed to prepare by the Salt Sea, the Judean chalk wilderness. Eventually, I had other ideas, but there was no denying their sincerity. They were right that G-d was about to intervene, but even I could not have imagined how that would transpire.
“Yes, my mother told me the story about Miriam, the much younger cousin of my mother. The story of a miraculous conception was not hard to believe, in light of what happened to Elizabeth, my mother, who had an experience much like Sarah, long ago. But a virgin conceiving, and without the aid of a husband, well that was too much for some people. Nobody had read Isaiah that way before then. The text said this—
“Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my G-d also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.’
“We had all understood this to refer to an event during the time of Isaiah in light of the latter part of that passage. We also had understood it to mean that a nubile woman who had remained a virgin until marriage would conceive in the normal way, with aid of her new СКАЧАТЬ