The Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton resigns from Riverside Church

Today's NY Times City Room blog reports the resignation of The Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton from the position of Senior Minister at Riverside Church. The comments after the article give some idea of the range of opinions and the scope of the issues.

What I like about Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews by Paula Fredriksen

Paula Fredriksen's Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity, (New York: Knopf) 1999 addresses the claim of the gospels that Jesus was Messiah, the anointed one of God. This is also found in Paul: that Jesus was the son of David "according to the flesh," that is, by physical descent.

While early writers clearly redefine Messiah to bring it into line with their religious convictions about Jesus (the Messiah is one who suffers, dies and rises after three days), the concept nonetheless coheres with Jesus' crucifixion and the inscription over the cross "The King of the Jews." This discussion is very important. For those who are in search of the historical Jesus, the discussion of course speaks to the question of messianic self-consciousness. Yet Prof. Fredriksen avoids this morass into which many New Testament scholars fall, preferring instead to dwell on the meaning of the crucifixion as an historical event by the Romans intentionally acting as a deterrent to the followers of Jesus. However, I think the issue requires more discussion. Matthew, for example, as I have argued in my book Jesus the Meek King, elaborates the motif through use of Zechariah. Matthew thus opens a window both onto the Hellenistic ideal of a meek king and at the same time onto the person of Jesus born King of the Jews. Matthew does this without differentiating between who Jesus was and his own description of Jesus.

Bones of St Paul found (or not)

Nicole Winfield writes for the Washington Post that Pope Benedict has reported that the bones of St Paul have indeed been confirmed in the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome:

Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican's Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.

Am I missing something? Carbon dating only confirms that the bone fragments date from the first two centuries CE. What makes them specifically Pauline?

Meantime, a 4th century fresco has been identified as depicting St Paul according to Nick Pisa of the Daily Telegraph.

A photograph of the icon shows the thin face of a bearded man with large eyes, sunken nose and face on a red background surrounded with a yellow circle – the classic image of St Paul.

The image was found in the Catacomb of St Thekla, close to the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, which is said to be built on the site where he was buried.

Seems to me that these "discoveries" have something to do with the lectionary. Tomorrow we celebrate the Feasts of SS Peter and Paul. 'Nuff said.

Penguin's first Talmud transl. Norman Solomon

Penguin is publishing its first edition of the Talmud (June 30).

Norman Solomon’s lucid translation from the Bavli (Babylonian) is accompanied by an introduction on The Talmud’s arrangement, social and historical background, reception, and authors.

Also at Penguin's Radio Room I am enjoying Classics on Air.
A Cup Of Poetry features a reading of "The Aztec Empire" by Fran Ritchie from her book The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War (Viking 2008).

Editing manuscripts

For the next couple of weeks, I (and my co-writer) are fielding queries from the editor(s) about our manuscript, Starting New Testament Study. This kind of work is an essential but time-consuming negotiation. Good editing is skillful and rare these days.

I'll also be working on a glossary of terms. This could be quite engaging. Perspective is everything. For example:
Apocrypha: collection of Jewish texts not included in the Tanak but accepted in Catholic Bibles. OR: APOCRYPHA - Most commonly refers to books or parts of books that are accepted by Roman Catholics as properly belonging to the Old Testament, but that most Protestants do not accept as inspired. There is also a group of books called the New Testament Apocrypha, but neither Catholics nor Protestants believe they should be included in the New Testament canon. See DEUTEROCANONICAL. OR:
The term Apocrypha accurately refers to the 14 Old Testament books included in the Vulgate (the Catholic Latin edition of the Bible), but which are excluded from the Hebrew canon and which appear as an appendix in the Protestant Bible. Among them are the books of Tobit, Judith, Baruch and Maccabees.

Veronese: Wedding at Cana--Vision by Peter Greenaway

Not to be missed in Venice:

From June 6 to September 13, 2009 the San Giorgio Maggiore Island will host an extraordinary event: The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese. A Vision by Peter Greenaway, a multimedia performance is the result of the collaboration between Peter Greenaway, the Dutch director of photography and special effects wizard Reiner van Brummelen and the Milan-based production company directed by Franco Laera Change Performing Arts. The latest has organised and produced all the British artist’s recent multimedia events.

The performance – a true multimedia event lasting about 50 minutes – will make spectators relive the episode of the marriage feast at Cana where Christ accomplished his first miracle, as narrated in the Gospel of John. Greenaway will point out to the public the painting’s scores of characters, from the servants preparing dishes, to the banquet guests, to the guests of honor – Jesus Christ and his mother Mary – seated at the center of the painting’s architectural composition, in an on-going crescendo culminating in the narration’s crucial moment: the miracle of water turning into wine.

Roberta Smith comments for the NY Times:

But it is the formal and spatial parsing of the image, its figures, hefty architectural setting and deep vista that is most enthralling. Often familiar art historical ploys are used, but it is still amazing to see so many of them put through their paces so quickly and effortlessly and at actual scale.

In one sequence the figures are numbered and Jesus’ centrality is confirmed with a series of radiating red lines. In another, color drains from the image and the work’s grand spatial recession is measured in white lines on grisaille. There is a shift to stark white on black and the image rotates, so that we are once more above it. Different figure groups are highlighted: you see, for example, that the arrangement of Jesus and his party presages the Last Supper.

Different reactions to the miracle — skepticism, fear, devotion — are singled out. Details are brought forward, like the two men craning out from the upper reaches of the columned edifice who have, for eternity, their own overhead view. Or the meat carver whose knife is positioned directly over Jesus’ head.

Orphans of Gold at the Pierpont Morgan Library

Here's a leaf from the Winchester Bible (around 1160-80), the largest English Romanesque Bible, depicting scenes from the life of David. Its part of a new exhibit at the Pierpont Morgan Library on "orphans" i.e. individual pages removed from their manuscripts. This single page is the most important in the Morgan’s collection (scholars refer to the artist as the Master of the Morgan Leaf). Karen Rosenberg reviews the exhibit in today's NY Times:

It is as dynamic as a modern-day comic book but with quietly emotive breaks in the action. In the final panel King David, mourning the death of his young son, buries his face in his red robe.