Loading...Even though the Spirit of God shows up here and there throughout the Old Testament, starting of course already in Genesis 1:2, continuing on occasion through the narratives and in the prophets, it is not really a central narrational or theological theme. That contrasts with the New Testament. Here the Spirit of God is enormously important, on every level.
The historical reason for that is that the earliest Christians believed that with the death and resurrection of Jesus they had entered into the End of the Ages. They were living at the end times. As we have seen, the resurrection of the dead – when God raised bodies back to live, some to face judgment and others to be given an eternal reward – was to transpire at the end of this age; in the Bible this future resurrection was first spoken of explicitly in Daniel 12:1-3, the last chapter of the final book of the Hebrew Bible to be written. But the idea of a future resurrection became a widely accepted theological notion in the two hundred years before Jesus and was adopted by a wide range of Jews in Israel in Jesus’ day, including the Essenes, the Pharisees, John the Baptist, Jesus and his followers.
And so, when Jesus’ disciples came to think he had been raised from the dead, their natural conclusion was that the resurrection had now started. It was soon to come to fruition. They were in the end of time. And one of the passages of Scripture that they turned to that could explain what would happen at the end of Time was Joel 2:28-32 (because of quirks of translation, this is Joel 3:1-5 in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament).
Joel does not speak about a future resurrection, but it does describe future events and part of his description proved central to the early Christians’ understanding of themselves in relationship to the Spirit. As with all the prophets, for Joel, the future was not the distant future to come hundreds or thousands of years later (say, in 33 CE or 2021). It was his nation’s own future. Joel indicates that when this (near) future comes, God would “pour out his Spirit on all people” and they would “prophesy…see visions… and dream dreams.” This was taken by the early Christians to refer to what had already happened to them. God had sent his spirit upon them in fulfilment of Scripture, and the Spirit was revealing God’s will to them here at the end of time through prophecies, visions, and dreams.
I’ll explain how the early Christians understood that in
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Bart: “As we have seen, the resurrection of the dead – when God raised bodies back to live … was to transpire at the end of this age … the idea of a future resurrection became a widely accepted Theological … their natural conclusion was that the resurrection had now started.”
transpire: Good word choice! Just as it was God’s breath/spirit that first animated ‘adam, when God breathed life into lifeless clay, so also would God breathe life into the lifeless dead at the general resurrection of the dead. It was natural to think of God’s spirit as predominant during the apocalyptic time of the resurrection of the dead.
Churches being shut down and police interrupting church services over Coronavirus in several countries.
End of Mystery Babylon is at hand
Bart, In order to eliminate a concern about just when the second coming of Jesus would occur, it was postulated by someone I read (don’t remember who) that when a person accepts Jesus into their heart, that that was the second coming of Christ. His coming into your life. That way you don’t have to read the “signs” and interpret them to come up with a timeline for his return. Have you heard of this concept and what is your feeling about this idea?
Yup, it’s a very old view, often thought to be intimated in Luke 17:21 (“the Kingdom of God is within you”), although the translation of the passae is debated (does it mean instead “in your midst” — that is “among you”?)
Well… i personally am shocked that many christians looked or perhaps still look to this passage as having anything to do with the phrase “accept Jesus into their heart”. I am curious where that phrase and that ideology originates in the history of Christianity. You are so right in pointing out the phrase “entos humOn” probably means among or around you … after all he said it in a response to a question asked by the Pharisees… i would hardly say he believed the kingdom was within them! 😉
I have looked… where does the phrase “ask jesus into your heart” or “accept jesus into your heart” first appear in Christian history? I know it seems crazy, but is there any conversion experience like that in the writings of antiquity outside the NT… I don’t think there is one in the NT.
Great question. I don’t know. Certainly has a modern ring to it, I’ve always thought.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Jhn 14:17
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
these verse have the words “jesus” “in you” “heart”
What’s the chance that “The Kingdom of God” is in fact a new civilization or community and not “in heaven” or in the afterlife?
yes thats whats the kingdom of God is. before God sent many prophets to different nations few people submitted to God compared to the rest who disbleived. Atlast Jesus peace be upon him was Giving A Good News Of a Prophet And Saints that would come and establish The religion of God on earth as a kingdom and empire. So That Just Like the Angels Worship and obey God Alone in the heavenly kingdom. This New Kingdom will be doing so on Earth. And That Kingdom Is on Earth Currently. it started as powerful and its currently weak but it will be powerfull in the end when Jesus peace be upon him Descend And rule in it.
“The historical reason for that is that the earliest Christians believed that with the death and resurrection of Jesus they had entered into the End of the Ages. They were living at the end times. ”
Wasn’t John the Baptizer and Jesus’ message that they were in the end times without Jesus death and resurrection?
Yes indeed! THat all changed once Jesus’ followers believed he had been raised from the dead.
I suppose the first and best question is to ask who was the book Joel written to? The book opens after the land has been destroyed by “locusts “. It was a Divinely sent and divinely command army that came, destroyed, and went. To me, it smacks of Assyria. Of course a sprinkling of Greek words, and an explicit reference to Greeks causes some to date it post exilic, or at least reveals a late editor.
How do you date the book?
8th c. It is usually thought that a horrible locust plague made the author think of an invading army, and since Assyria was flexing its muscles, the connection was plaustible. But clearly the invasion had not yet happened yet when he was writing the book.
Since Israel was not powerful enough to fight off all of its invaders, is it likely that when the inevitable happened that the prophets trying to understand why god would abandon Israel latched on to the post hoc explanation that Israel’s people must have done something wrong to bring on this catastrophe?
That certainly did happen a lot. But it also happened that a prophet would warn that it is *going* to happen, just as people do all the time today. Sometimes the prophetic books indicate it will happen, sometimes they indicate it did, and sometimes the same book was written over a period of time, both before and after it did. Told you so!
God in the Old Testament is the prototypical abusive spouse – he punishes Israel for being “unfaithful” only to turn around and say he loves her and that’s why he hurts her. He *has* to beat her because she’s such a bad person, but he loves her and will take her back and everything will be well again…
*blech*
well… it may seem like “punish” but it’s really cause and effect. If I have you in a prison of safety and you escape in to the hiway and get run over—that could be perceived as punishment. Read the longest Psalm in the bible Psalm 119… David is gushing praise in every verse about the Law…and this law no one else in the world has. It is the demonstration of god’s love for his people. Perhaps because you are not a Jew you cannot perceive the depth of what is being said
The spirit of God is energy his force use to create as well as do other things.
Spirit isn’t a person.
Even though there’s some anthropomorphous sayings it doesn’t mean ruach spirit is a literal person
What do your instincts tell you about what Joel intended by the much discussed in evangelical circles “moon [will turn] into blood”? Could he simply be speaking about the next “blood moon” which occurs frequently and he and his audience would of been aware of, or is it something else? A metaphor? A “tretrad” of blood moons happening on Jewish holidays?
I suppose that’s it: a heavenly sign of the blood moon; the sun turning dark then would be an eclipse; and both would show God’s anger.
Hi, what do you make of Jesus saying that speaking against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin (Matthew 12 31:32).
Does this comment tie into your overall a analysis of the Holy Spirit relevance?
I’m going to be posting on that very question soon!
Thank you for an interesting post!
The role of the spirit,,,,
Perhaps my problem is, when I’ve read about all those religions,,and sometime compared their basic ground, if I once was tempted to depersonalize the Hebrew Bible (OT), and exchanges the persons, and even nations, cities like Israel, Egypt, Babylon, New Jerusalem etc with spiritual symbols, the whole narrative(s) turns for me inward. The same occured as I read the gnostic consept(s), the esoteric hebrew views which later was compiled into what they call Kabbalah views which is partly included into contemporary judaism, even the later Islamic sufi and philosofical views i.a. the “Unity of being” philosopy, and even other christian esoteric views, they all symbolize the narrative into a spiritual narrative. Even the gnostic 3 CE “On origin of the world” Israel is a pre-creation arch angle which is called “the man that sees God”, as also found in the “prayers of Jacob”, like the pre-creation “Adam” which at least partly uses these terms as spiritual.
Of course, a lot of those found its form on a later stage, but then I read the Hindi Vedas (which was around before and after the Hebrew bible), in particular the Creation myth in the Rig Veda and the story/evolution of the self, Atman which is the part of Brahman, in the Vedanta, I even think if I was allowed to depersonifize the Hebrew narratives about the Fall, and restoration of Israel and its people, and Gods restoration into the kind of new eden which Joel talks about, or the New Jerusalem with other writings talk about, I almost could make it fit into a hinduistic concept, but then on spiritual basis.
I agree, the Book of Joel is a great book, but I have problems finding it conceptiual different from some of the other prophet scriptures in the Hebrew Bible on the “Fall, Gods judgement of the sin and the restoration into a new Eden kind,,,or New Jerusalem,.
But,,,ok,,, I see that the book emphazise the presence of Gods spirit will fill all of his people.
Dr. Behrman,
I have a radio talk show in St. Louis on a community station where I talk about early Christianity. I am an atheist and Humanist. I’m interested in getting a position answering questions about religion. Any suggestions on how to pursue this desire?
Secondly, I’ve read all of your books and others regarding Christianity. I may be missing something, but the maverick Book of John seems the major source for Christians when they quote Scripture. What seems clear to me is that John the last Gospel written depicts a personality and divinity for Jesus that was created by his followers based on the fact that the Kingdom of God did not come “immanently.”
Consequently, it portrays a Jesus unlike the historical Jesus and was constructed to revive a failed Jewish apocalyptic prophet. Is it really evidence that reflects Jesus’ followers desperation to salvage a false religion. Thank you very much. I enjoy the blog tremendously.
Roy Overmann
Professor, Political Science and Philosophy
[email protected]
Do you mean a teaching position, college/university. It’s back to do another PhD for you!
No I wouldn’t say John was intentionally created to restore Jesus’ reputation. It was written by a completely different Xn community than the other accounts where views of Jesus had developed in significantly different ways over a long period of time. If you’re interested in classic studies, see J. Louis Martyn, History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel and Raymond Brown, Community of the Beloved Disciple.