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Biblical Studies

Schuler at Mekane Yesus Seminary

Apostolicity Today

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It was my pleasure to address the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa at the inaugural lecture series for the Rev. Dr. Yonas Deressa Research Center on 26-28 April 2023. This center will become the locus for new PhD programs in Biblical Studies, Biblical Languages, and Theological Studies to be offered by the seminary beginning in another year.

Under the topic of “Apostolicity in the Church,” I delivered three plenary lectures: “The First Apostles,” “After the Apostles,” and “Apostles Today.” Of particular focus for this series is the use of to title of “apostle” and claims of apostolic authority in many African Independent Churches.

I am hopeful that my work was beneficial for the church and set the stage for rigorous scholarship among coming generations of church leaders in Ethiopia.

Participants in the lecture series

All Greek to me…

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After teaching Hellenistic Greek at Concordia for 27 years, I was saddened early this year when the World Meteorological Association announced in March that they would no longer use the Greek alphabet to name hurricanes. Supposedly Greek letters like “alpha” and “beta,” from which comes the word “alphabet,” are too confusing.

So I was heartened today to read that the @WHO has announced, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs): letters of the Greek alphabet! Read more here.

For variants of concern:

For variants of interest:

Greek is back! It is not a dead language, even though these variants can kill.

Want to learn more about Greek? Come and study with me at CSP!

Now, if I can just figure out why people turn to Greek to describe disasters…

Sabbatical begins

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Lots of reading ahead

After two delays, I am now two days into a sabbatical. I am amazed how many little details in my academic life need work. That work has begun with this website. With Flash gone as of 1 January 2021, I have had to re-record my New Testament lectures into .mp4 content. That work is done and they can be located under my Teaching menu. I have also linked in updated lectures from THL310.

But I have also started reading. First on my stack is Craig Keener’s Christobiography.

He articulates the genre of the Gospels and compares them to the conventions of the biographies produced in the early Empire. He is asking what ancient readers of such works would expect in terms of “historical information and flexibility in presenting that information” (p. 24). How this study might challenge a doctrinal understanding of inspiration and its corollaries (in the LCMS) will keep my interest.

Who matters?

Luke addressed his gospel to “most excellent Theophilus.” The designation “most excellent” points to an individual of status, perhaps the official in Nero’s administration at Rome who is hearing the case that Paul appealed to the emperor (Acts 25:11). Nero’s rule was tyrannical. He had recently murdered his mother. To address such power was a dangerous task. 

Nevertheless, Luke boldly speaks the truth (Luke 1:4) to Theophilus.  Luke asserts in the birth story that Jesus is Savior (Luke 2:11), a title reserved for the emperor as the savior of the Fatherland, that is, of Rome and its elites. To drive his truth home, Luke includes in his gospel a range of stories that occur nowhere else in the other gospels. These stories illustrate that Jesus is Savior of all, not just the few. In Luke’s gospel the poor and the marginalized matter. 

The birth of Jesus in Luke is announced to shepherds, because shepherds matter. The child Jesus is revered by two street people at the temple in Jerusalem because Simeon and Anna matter. Only in this gospel does Jesus interrupt a funeral procession because the widow of Nain matters. Only in this gospel does Jesus commend a good Samaritan and a Samaritan leper who returns to give thanks for healing because Samaritans matter. A sinful woman, a repentant tax collector, a woman who lost a coin, and two unknown disciples on the road to Emmaus experience God’s mercy because they matter. Luke alone tells of a father killing the fatted calf for a prodigal son because even this son matters. The Lukan Jesus speaks of a persistent woman who keeps demanding justice because she matters. And in this gospel alone Jesus says to a criminal being crucified with him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Yes, even a criminal matters. Jesus is Savior of all. 

Luke could have spoken the truth about Jesus by simply writing, “Jesus is Savior of all.” But Luke never uses that phrase. Instead, Luke makes the point by invoking the term “Savior” and then telling story after story about those who are marginalized and mistreated but who still matter to the Savior of all. 

It is not enough to say that everyone matters. One must also clearly name those despised by the culture, those mistreated, those denied justice, those with a knee to their necks, as people who matter to the Jesus who is Savior of all. 

We who follow Jesus do justice to Luke’s stirring portrayal when we do the same. In this moment, our opportunity as Christians is to speak the truth to power and say, “Black lives matter,” and then to work to make it so.

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