|
AND PESHER INTERPRETATION |
|
by
Doug Ward |
On September 12, 2001, the day after the infamous terrorist
attacks on the United States, the U.S Congress issued a resolution in response to
the crisis. In reading that resolution, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle
stated,
"I know that there is only the smallest measure of
inspiration that can be taken from this devastation, but there is a passage in
the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to all of us at times like this ... .
|
The
bricks have fallen down, |
|
But
we will rebuild with dressed stone; |
|
The
fig trees have been felled, |
|
But
we will replace them with cedars."1 |
Congress
chose the biblical passage quoted in the resolution, Isaiah 9:10, as a poetic
expression of America's determination to bounce back and rebuild after the
September 11 attacks. In its original context, though, Isaiah 9:10 had a
different meaning.
Back
in 732 B.C., the House of Israel had just sustained an attack from the powerful
Assyrian Empire. In events described in 2 Kings 15:29-30, King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria had attacked cities in
northern Israel and taken captives. This defeat should have served as a wake-up
call for Israel, leading the nation to turn back to God in repentance. Instead,
Israel responded in "pride and arrogance of heart" (Isa 9:9),
announcing in Isa 9:10 that it was perfectly capable of handling its own
affairs apart from God. As a result, God allowed the attacks by Israel's
enemies to continue (vv. 11-14). A decade later, Assyria conquered the House of
Israel.
|
A
2012 Bestseller |
Jonathan Cahn, the leader of a Messianic congregation in New Jersey,
sees Congress's use of Isaiah 9:10 as one of a number of signs from God that
the post 9/11 U.S. faces the kind of imminent divine judgment described in
Isaiah 9. In his book The
Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret
of America's Future (FrontLine, 2011), Cahn
claims that Isaiah 9 gives a special warning to twenty-first century America.
In support of his claim, he makes the following assertions and observations:
· Isaiah
9:10 expresses ancient Israel's defiance toward God. The U.S. has a similar
attitude of defiance.
· The
U.S. has "rebuilt with dressed stone" at Ground Zero, beginning new
construction with a huge stone from the Adirondacks.
· At
Ground Zero there is a memorial to a fallen sycamore tree, and the "fig
trees" in Isa 9:10 are also known as "sycamores" in the English
language.
· A
special evergreen tree has been planted at Ground Zero, the same family of tree
as the "cedars" in Isa 9:10.
· The
economic recession that began in 2008 came one sabbatical cycle after the
terrorist attacks, with both the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial
disaster occurring right at the end of a "year of release."
The Harbinger has been a popular bestseller, with over a thousand
reviews at Amazon.com as of late October 2012. The book seems to have struck a
chord with many American Christians who are worried about current events,
believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, and are eager for biblical
guidance in trying times.
However,
I am not at all convinced by Cahn's argument that Isaiah 9 contains a direct
message for the post 9/11 U.S. The use of Isa 9:10 by Congress and the new
construction at Ground Zero were not motivated by defiance toward God, but by a
natural desire to rebuild and defy the terrorists. The U.S. is not in the same
kind of covenant relationship with God as the nation of Israel was, so we should
not expect to find direct messages to America in the prophets. Moreover, the
fact that the fallen tree at Ground Zero and the fig tree of Isa 9:10 are both
called "sycamores" in the English language has no relevance to the
meaning of a prophecy given in Hebrew.
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Pesher,
Anyone? |
Jonathan Cahn's attempt to make a very specific connection between
Isa 9:10 and the twenty first century U.S. is an example of what biblical
scholars call "pesher" interpretation (from an Aramaic word meaning
"to interpret"). In pesher interpretation, a contemporary meaning is
assigned to a scripture, usually a prophecy, without regard to the scripture's
original context and meaning.
The
term originates in some biblical commentaries found among the Dead Sea scrolls,
especially the Habakkuk commentary (1QpHab) written by someone from the sect
that collected the scrolls.2 After
quoting a short passage from Habakkuk, the commentator then says, "Its pesher
is ... ," and gives an interpretation of the
passage.
Habakkuk's
prophecy comes from the late seventh century B.C., shortly before the House of
Judah was attacked by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. But the commentator from
Qumran relates the details of the prophecy to the very specific concerns of his
sect about 500 years later. For example, a comment on Hab
1:4 ("The wicked hem in the righteous") says that "the
righteous" is the Teacher of Righteousness, the founder of the sect. It
identifies "the wicked" as the Wicked Priest (believed to be one of
the Hasmonean priest-kings), an opponent of the Teacher of Righteousness. The
commentator sees Hab 1:5 ( "For I am going to do
something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were
told.") as a reference to those who ignored the words of the Teacher of
Righteousness. Habakkuk 1:6-11 describes the Babylonian enemy that would attack
Judah. The commentator relates this passage to the Romans, the powerful empire
of his own time.
The
commentary on the second chapter of Habakkuk is similar. The discussion of Hab 2:4b ("the righteous will live by his faith")
says, "Interpreted, this concerns all those who observe the Law in the
House of Judah, whom God will deliver from the House of Judgement
because of their suffering and because of their faith in the Teacher of
Righteousness." On the other hand, Hab 2:16
("The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace
will cover your glory.") is seen as a warning directed to the Wicked
Priest.
So
in relating Isa 9:10 to a current construction project in New York City,
Jonathan Cahn is not doing something new. Pesher interpretation has been
practiced for over two thousand years. In this article, I will discuss several
additional examples of what might be called pesher interpretation. These
examples raise questions about how to distinguish valid and invalid biblical
interpretation, and I will suggest some possible answers.
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James
the Just in Prophecy |
Among the first Christians, James the brother of Jesus was a highly
esteemed leader. Hegesippus, a second century
Christian, states concerning James:
"Because of his superior righteousness he was called
the Just and Oblias-meaning, in Greek,
`Bulwark of the People' and `Righteousness'-as the prophets declare concerning
him" (quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea in Ecclesiastical History
2.23).
Here
Hegesippus expresses a belief that James the Just was
mentioned by the biblical prophets. What prophecies did early Christians apply
to James?
Later
in the excerpt cited by Eusebius, Hegesippus gives
one example. Concerning corrupt leaders in Jerusalem who conspired to put James
to death, he comments, "This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: `Let us
remove the just man, for he is unprofitable to us. Therefore they shall eat the
fruit of their works.' "
The
prophecy referenced by Hegesippus is Isa 3:10 in the
Greek Septuagint translation. Isaiah 3 predicts the fall of Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 A.D., just eight years after the martyrdom
of James in 62. Like other early Christians, Hegesippus
no doubt believed that the death of James served to hasten the destruction of
Jerusalem and the Temple.
There
may be another clue in the obscure word Oblias
mentioned by Hegesippus. Prominent scholar Richard
Bauckham3 suggests that Oblias
may be a rough transliteration of the Hebrew phrase Gevul-Am,
which can be translated "bulwark of the people." Bauckham
sees a possible reference to Isa 54:12, which pictures a wall around Jerusalem
in the Messianic Age as a gevul. Hegesippus, earlier in the passage quoted by Eusebius, says
that James was constantly making intercessory prayers for the people, which
made his knees as rough as those of a camel (Hebrew gamal).
There may be a play on words between gamal and
gavul, with early Christians viewing the
prayers of James as a protective wall around Jerusalem in fulfillment of Isa
54:12. They may also have seen a reference to the prayers of James in Isa
54:14, which says that Jerusalem would be protected "in
righteousness"-i.e., in James the Righteous.
Based
on these clues, it has been speculated that early Christians may have connected
a number of references to "righteousness" in Isaiah's prophecies with
James, much as the Qumran sectarians connected "righteousness" in
Habakkuk with their Teacher of Righeousness.4
For example, Isa 60:17 says, "I will appoint Peace as your overseer, and
Righteousness as your taskmaster" (NRSV). James was the divinely appointed
"overseer" or "taskmaster" of the first Christians in
Jerusalem, so this verse could have been applied to him. Similarly, one can
imagine verses like Isa 1:21 and Isa 5:7 being connected to the martyrdom of
James.
|
Flexible
Texts |
My remaining examples come from the past five hundred years. Our
next stop is the early sixteenth century A.D. After Christopher Columbus made
his voyages to America, Europeans learned that there were people in the Western
Hemisphere of whose existence they had not previously been aware. Looking to
the scriptures for ways to understand this new information, some believed they
saw a reference to the inhabitants of the Americas.
In
Jesus' Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:16-24), those who are invited to a
banquet decline to attend, making various excuses. The host then instructs his
servant to scour the streets looking for people willing to attend.
It
is generally understood that the host in the parable represents God, while the
banquet represents the great messianic banquet in the Kingdom of God. The new
twist added in the early 1500s is the idea that the three people in the parable
who make excuses represent three population groups to whom the Gospel had already
been presented: Jews, Muslims, and nations in the Eastern Hemisphere. In this
reading of the parable, the discovery of nations in the Western Hemisphere is
an instruction from God, the host, to take the Gospel to these nations. And so
in 1524, twelve Franciscan missionaries were sent to central Mexico for this
purpose.5
Parables
are good candidates for pesher interpretation, since their symbolism can be
construed in imaginative ways. The same can be said for prophetic passages.
Readers of biblical prophecies naturally see the text through the lenses of
their own times, and so, for instance, scores of candidates for the Antichrist have been identified over the centuries.
I
can personally attest to the popularity of pesher interpretation in the
Adventist movement, since I spent many years in the Worldwide Church of God
(WCG), an Adventist denomination with its own idiosyncratic views about
prophetic texts. I will illustrate with a few examples.
For
a number of years, WCG taught that the seven churches in Rev 2-3 represent
seven successive eras of Christian history. According to this reading, the
message to the church at Ephesus is directed to the earliest Christians, the
message to the church at Smyrna is for Christians in the next historical
period, and so on. Specifically, since the WCG believed that genuine Christians
observed the seventh day Sabbath, the messages were for Sabbath-keeping
Christians in their respective historical periods. The WCG saw itself as the "Philadelphia
era" of Christianity and a special recipient of the message of Rev 3:7-13,
including the promise of protection from tribulation in v. 10.
After
WCG founder Herbert Armstrong died in 1986, the new leader of the church,
Joseph Tkach, instituted sweeping doctrinal reforms.
WCG quickly repudiated many of Armstrong's distinctive teachings, to the dismay
of a number of members. Among the teachings dropped by WCG was the "church
eras" interpretation of Rev 2-3.
One disgruntled
elder, Gerald Flurry, responded by starting a new group, the Philadelphia
Church of God. In Flurry's view, the WCG had entered the "lukewarm"
Laodicean era of church history, and Christ had called him to preserve
Armstrong's doctrines and help as many WCG people as possible to see the error
of their new ways. Flurry believed that his book Malachi's Message, a
polemical work directed specifically to WCG members, provided a fulfillment of
Jesus' promise to "stand at the door, and knock" (Rev 3:20) to get
the attention of the Laodicean church.
Malachi's
Message is
full of pesher interpretation, much of which would only be intelligible to
readers from a WCG background. Flurry reads the second chapter of Malachi, a
prophecy delivering correction to the priesthood of Israel in the fifth century
B.C., as a message directed specifically to the ministry of WCG in the 1990s.
For example, when Malachi 2:14 says that God "hath been witness between
thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously." he sees a condemnation of WCG clergy. In Flurry's eyes,
WCG ministers had betrayed the bride of Christ (the church) by abandoning
teachings of Herbert Armstrong. In Mal 2:12, Malachi prophesies that God
"will cut off ... the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of
Jacob." Flurry views this passage as a warning against WCG leaders for
relying on the guidance of Christian scholars in their decision to implement
doctrinal reforms.
Another
instance of Flurry's pesher interpretation is his explanation of the second
chapter of Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians. Here Paul mentions
someone who would hold back "the secret power of lawlessness" (v. 7,
NIV), after which time "the lawless one will be revealed" (v. 8).
Flurry identifies Herbert Armstrong as the one holding back the power of
lawlessness, and his successor, Joseph Tkach, as the
"lawless one."
|
Gaining
Perspective |
Most readers will be quick to identify Malachi's Message as
invalid application of scripture. Gerald Flurry lives in a strange world, one
in which he and Herbert Armstrong occupy central positions in the divine plan.
Rather like the man in the Carly Simon song, he is
vain enough to think these scriptures are about him.
However,
Gerald Flurry's followers do not believe that he is doing pesher
interpretation. They revere him as a servant of God, just as the members of the
Qumran sect revered their Teacher of Righteousness. If many prophecies have
fulfillments in the end time, and if we are living in that time, then one would
expect an end time servant of God to fulfill prophecies.
So
how can we distinguish pesher interpretation from genuine fulfillment of
prophecy? Often the passage of time provides answers. Today we do not even know
the identity of the Qumran Teacher of Righteousness, and I am not aware of
anyone who thinks that the prophecies of Habakkuk make special reference to
him. It is likely that fifty years from now no one will remember Gerald Flurry,
and it will be easy to evaluate the claims of The Harbinger.
In
the meantime, we can gain valuable perspective by consulting high quality
sources from multiple points of view. For example, Flurry's writings assume
that the only genuine Christians in the world are a small group of Sabbatarian
Adventists. But those who read a wide variety of Christian literature and study
Christian history are unlikely to come to such a view.6
(For that reason, groups like Flurry's discourage
their members from reading sources outside their own literature.)
Similarly,
if we believe that the United States was founded as a "Christian
nation" under a special covenant with God but is now in spiritual decline,
then we may find The Harbinger compelling. However, a careful study of
American history will reveal a more complex picture, one of a nation that has
done much good in the world but has always wrestled with moral and spiritual
problems.7 Today abortion is such a problem, while
earlier in American history, slavery was a great national sin. The United
States has not fallen from a moral "golden age" because it has never
had one.
Studying
how a scriptural passage has been interpreted over the centuries is a good way
to gain insight into its meaning. Such studies can be helpful both for
parables, like the Parable of the Great Banquet, and for prophetic passages.
With regard to Rev 2-3, it is interesting to learn that interpreters have been
connecting the messages to the seven churches with eras of church history since
medieval times. Moreover, the assignment of these eras has varied a great deal
according to the time and theological persuasion of the interpreter.
During
the sixteenth century, English Protestant Thomas Brightman
(1557-1607) identified the Church of England of his time as the Laodicean era
in a critique of the church establishment.8
However, things looked different to evangelical Protestants four hundred years
later. For example, in 1943 Charles A. Nash saw the Philadelphia era extending
from 1648 to his time, with modern "rationalistic" trends
constituting Laodicea.9 In 1969,
Mennonite pastor Menno J. Brunk identified the time
of Wesley, Whitefield, and the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century as the
Philadelphia era.10
There
were a number of church era formulations in the early Adventist movement.
William Miller, who predicted the Second Coming would occur in 1844, dated the
start of the Laodicean era to 1798. In 1850, early Seventh-day Adventist Hiram Edson identified the Sardis era as Protestants who had not
heeded Miller's message, Philadelphia as Sabbath-keeping Adventists, and
Laodicea as Sunday-keeping Adventists.11
But by the late 1850s, the Seventh-day Adventists settled on their own group as
the Laodicean era, and ever since they have used Rev 3:14-22 as a way to
promote reflection, repentance, and revival.
The
exercise of identifying church eras in Rev 2-3 seems to be akin to taking an
ink blot test or consulting a newspaper horoscope: There are numerous
possibilities, depending on one's point of view. The historical data suggests
to me that the "church eras" model is not the best way to interpret
these chapters. (Such considerations helped lead to WCG's rejection of this
model in the 1990s.)
Arguably,
pesher interpretation can sometimes have beneficial results. The sixteenth
century European interpretation of the Parable of the Great Banquet probably
helped promote Christian evangelism and outreach. The call to repentance in Rev
3:14-22 is particularly powerful for Seventh-day Adventists because they
believe these verses are directed to them in some special way. But in general,
I would argue that the end does not justify the means. Our attempts to apply a
scriptural passage stand on firmest ground when they are rooted in the original
context and meaning of the passage. For example, a call to repentance from Isa
9:10 simply can be based on the dangers of an attitude of defiance toward God.
There is no need to invent more direct connections to specific present day
circumstances.
|
What
About James? |
What about the connections apparently made by early Jewish
Christians between "righteousness" in the book of Isaiah and James
the Just? As a Christian, I think an argument can be made for the validity of
these connections. The prophecies of Isaiah were originally directed to
Israelites and have much to say about the Messiah and the messianic age. Since
the first Christians were Israelites living in Jerusalem at the dawn of the
messianic age, it is not too much of a stretch for them to see references to a
close relative of the Messiah in Isaiah's prophecies. Their interpretation
seems to me to have a much firmer foundation than the others I have presented.
Overall,
the activity of assigning fulfillments to biblical prophecies probably should
be accompanied by a warning label reading, "Don't try this at home."
History suggests that we should be cautious in our application of prophecy,
relying first on interpretations based on sound methodology, readings that come
to us from Jesus and his early followers and have passed the test of time.
1quoted on p. 117 of The
Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine, Lake Mary,
Florida, 2011).
2For an English translation
of this commentary, see The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes, Seventh Edition,
Penguin Classics, 2012.
3Richard Bauckham, "For What Offense was James put to
Death?", in James the Just and Christian Origins, Bruce Chilton and
Craig Evans, eds., E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1999, p. 209.
4D. Thomas Lancaster, Torah
Club 6: Chronicles of the Apostles, First Fruits of Zion, Marshfield,
Missouri, 2012, pp. 858-859.
5See chapter four of
the book 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya
Apocalypse by Matthew Restall and Amara Solari, Rowman
& Littlefield, 2011.
6I recommend Christian
History magazine as one balanced and informative source on Christian
history and traditions.
7For a more complete
picture of America's religious and spiritual history, I recommend the work of
historians Mark Noll, Thomas Kidd, and John Fea. On
the religious views of the Founding Fathers of the U.S., see Faiths of the
Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes.
8See Robert Surridge, "Seventh-Day Adventism: Self-Appointed
Laodicea", pp. 21-42 in Studies in the Book of Revelation, Steve Moyise, editor, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 2002.
9"A Scriptural
View of Church History," Bibliotheca Sacra 100 (1943), pp.
188-198.
10"The Seven
Churches of Revelation," Bibliotheca Sacra 126 (1969), pp.
240-246.
11Surridge,
p. 26.
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