Some of my lecture 4 notes (mostly quotations) of interest so far …
Around 21 minutes in:
Because of the enlightenment split, apocalyptic references in scripture are only understood to be divine interventions visited upon us as world-ending events.
39:30:
“The gospels do not contain apocalyptic. They are apocalyptic.”
41:
The evangelists knew perfectly well that they were living in a not-yet time, of course! But as far as they were concerned, the cross whose meaning was disclosed in the resurrection and the subsequent scriptural reflection generated the ‘already’ that they were celebrating. That’s why the second-temple Jewish world-view has as its most classic characteristic: hope. The early Christian world-view has as its most classic characteristic: Joy.
Added emphasis above is mine - though I would argue is faithful to Wright’s message.
47:30
Mark is just as clear as John, though in different ways. The implicit claim by Jesus leaves no room for the temple. The shrine has done its forward pointing work. Now it is a haunt for brigands, ripe for destruction.
Stong words, those! And quite a distinction, worthy of the book of Hebrews itself to distinguish this New Covenant of Christ from the original still celebrated and maintained within Jewish tradition. I’m guessing that Wright isn’t agonizing over much these days (like many other popular religioius leaders) how currently orthodox Jewish thinkers would react to all this.
But I can’t help but reflect further then if many of those same Christian leaders might not feel the same sting - and in exactly the same way, if it was pointed out that the Protestant traditions of the Reformation may have simply relocated that divine Heaven-earth intersection from a physical temple into the pages of printed holy writ - (as somebody recently referred to it: ‘the paper pope’ of the Protestants). Do we ever reach a point where that has concluded its “forward-pointing work”? And more to the point, has it become a haunt for brigands? I’ll suggest that we never (this side of the grave) entirely leave behind our need for the pointers - especially scriptures. Perhaps now more than ever as (at least here in the U.S.) evangelicals and their leaders flock away even from such earthly shrines as the ancient printed page to prostrate themselves before the newer shinier idols that promise worldly power to them.