Wednesday 06 September 2017

Psalm: Psalm 74:1-12

Background

For 'Peter', as for Paul, faith in Christ was transformative -not just in terms of a change of status (becoming 'God'schildren'), but also in terms of behaviour. And, as for Paul,salvation was the end, not the start, of the spiritual journey -you 'grow into salvation'. But, as we have mentioned previously,there is an important difference that many New Testament scholarsnote - whereas Paul was writing especially (but not exclusively) toGentile (non-Jewish) Christians, 1 Peter was probably written foran exclusively Jewish Christian audience, as becomes clear in theextensive use of quotes from Isaiah (especially) and Psalms.

The image here is of the destroyed Jerusalem temple, and it wasa very potent image at the end of the first century because it hadbeen demolished (apart from what we now know as The Wailing Wall)by the rampaging Roman army in AD70 (after the death of Peter,which is one reason why scholars might think he didn't write thisletter.) For Jews this was, of course, a tragedy, but some saw italso as a sign of God's wrath and of an imminent Day of Judgement.For them, the temple (especially as re-modelled by Herod the Great)represented all that was wrong with Judaism - political compromisewith the Romans, a corrupt religious hierarchy, and a loss ofmessianic vision. The Essenes (of Dead Sea Scrolls fame) wereamongst those who looked for a radical transformation of Judaism,and John the Baptist - and Jesus himself - shared that view. So are-built temple, as imagined by 'Peter', drawing together threebuilding metaphors, was, in turn, a metaphor both for divinejudgement and for a renewed people of God - a radically transformedJudaism. Verses 9 and 10 then take familiar titles for Israel andapply them to this new Jewish Christian community - they, and theyalone, are the true people of God, in contrast to those whorejected Jesus as the true Messiah.

To Ponder

• The Jerusalem temple was at the very heart of 1st-centuryJudaism - until its destruction. For 'Peter', his Jewish Christiancommunity now took its place -as "living stones", a "spiritualhouse", and as a "holy priesthood" offering "spiritual sacrifices".This is very different from Paul's more organic image of the Churchas the Body of Christ. Which image do you find more helpful?Why?

• "Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile,insincerity, envy, and all slander" (v. 1). 'Peter' equatedChristian maturity with what we might now call emotionalintelligence (very much like Paul's fruit of the Spirit inGalatians 5). So which is the more important Christiancharacteristic: right behaviour or right belief? Why?