Reading 3 John Within a Jewish Framework: An Overdue Reconsideration of the Text

<div> <div> <div> <p>This article challenges the interpretive decision made by many scholars to group 3 John with the rest of the Johannine Epistles (and sometimes John’s Gospel). This interpretative method fails to treat 3 John, as well as the rest of the Epistles, on their own terms. It also often places these texts within a hypothetical ‘Johannine Community’ and its various phases of development. However, if 3 John is read on its own, the text itself points us to interpret it within a Jewish framework. The seemingly lack of interest in Jews and Judaism, rather than being a sign of a later date when this group was no longer rooted in any Jewish community and no longer cared about such issues, is a sign that the epistle dates from a period before this community of Christ-believers began to markedly differentiate themselves from other Jews. These points, as well as the author’s use of τὸν ἐθνικός when describing the missionary work by some of those within the community, may also suggest that the conflict between the Elder and Diotrephes was related to disagreements over the nature of missionary work within the early Jesus movement. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Reading 3 John Within a Jewish Framework: An Overdue Reconsideration of the Text

<div> <div> <div> <p>This article challenges the interpretive decision made by many scholars to group 3 John with the rest of the Johannine Epistles (and sometimes John’s Gospel). This interpretative method fails to treat 3 John, as well as the rest of the Epistles, on their own terms. It also often places these texts within a hypothetical ‘Johannine Community’ and its various phases of development. However, if 3 John is read on its own, the text itself points us to interpret it within a Jewish framework. The seemingly lack of interest in Jews and Judaism, rather than being a sign of a later date when this group was no longer rooted in any Jewish community and no longer cared about such issues, is a sign that the epistle dates from a period before this community of Christ-believers began to markedly differentiate themselves from other Jews. These points, as well as the author’s use of τὸν ἐθνικός when describing the missionary work by some of those within the community, may also suggest that the conflict between the Elder and Diotrephes was related to disagreements over the nature of missionary work within the early Jesus movement. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Reading 3 John Within a Jewish Framework: An Overdue Reconsideration of the Text

This article challenges the interpretive decision made by many scholars to group 3 John with the rest of the Johannine Epistles (and sometimes John’s Gospel). This interpretative method fails to treat 3 John, as well as the rest of the Epistles, on their own terms. It also often places these texts within a hypothetical ‘Johannine Community’ and its various phases of development. However, if 3 John is read on its own, the text itself points us to interpret it within a Jewish framework. The seemingly lack of interest in Jews and Judaism, rather than being a sign of a later date when this group was no longer rooted in any Jewish community and no longer cared about such issues, is a sign that the epistle dates from a period before this community of Christ-believers began to markedly differentiate themselves from other Jews. These points, as well as the author’s use of τὸν ἐθνικός when describing the missionary work by some of those within the community, may also suggest that the conflict between the Elder and Diotrephes was related to disagreements over the nature of missionary work within the early Jesus movement.

Physical Weakness, Illness and Death in 1 Corinthians 11.30: Deprivation and Overconsumption in Pauline and Early Christianity

In 1 Cor 11.17–34, Paul attempts to correct the practice of a communal meal in Corinth. He notes that consumption of this meal without discernment of ‘the body’ has had disastrous consequences within the community of Christ-followers: ‘For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dying’ (11.30). This essay offers a physical interpretation of 1 Cor 11.30, contending that Paul presents the bodies of both the ‘have-nots’ and those who shame them as suffering because of the practice of the Lord's Supper, the former from dietary deprivation and the latter from overconsumption.

Responding to the Restoration

The restoration of Nauvoo, Illinois, by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) generated competing visions for the city. While the Latter-day Saints used the site to attract religious interest, their sibling faith, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Community of Christ), responded with a competing building program of their own. This chapter traces the way the Reorganized Church moved from a defensive posture to rebrand its message in Nauvoo around historical accuracy and the internal debate within Church leadership that this shift created. It also examines the cooperation between the faiths that emerged as they took divergent paths. Finally, it explores the response by the local Nauvoo community to the loss of control over their town’s historical narrative.

Nauvoo as a Reorganized Church Foothold

Though Nauvoo was abandoned by most Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century, Emma Smith, the widow of Church founder Joseph Smith, and her children remained in the city, maintaining a Mormon presence in western Illinois. This chapter examines the rise of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Community of Christ), founded by Smith’s children, and their use of family and historic sites in Nauvoo in the early twentieth century. It discusses the transformation of these sites from family residences to religious tourism centers used to proselytize people to the faith. It also introduces the competing views of Mormonism that developed between the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church.

Epilogue

This chapter explores the future for faith and community relations in Nauvoo as a result of the city’s twentieth-century restoration boom. It examines the directions taken by the various constituents, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Community of Christ), and local residents unaffiliated with either faith. Additionally, it explores how Nauvoo acts as a case study for the bargains made by a community when it selects, or has selected for it, a tourism-based economy. Finally, it opines regarding ways the parties involved can work together for the good of Nauvoo.

Overcome by faith

This sermon, on Matt 17:1–9, reflects on the aftermath of the 2016 United States election, asking the question of whether or not we, as Christians, will be overcome by fear or by faith. Using the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this sermon argues that we should become what Bonhoeffer in his life’s work tried to create: a radical community of Christ that does not allow itself to be overcome either by the fear of the Other, which demagogues among us will always seek to exploit on their path to power, or by the very real fears associated with authentic gospel living, but which instead allow faith to power its every decision.

Tour Guiding, 1959–2012

This chapter argues that the evolution of tour guiding at the Kirtland Temple reflects select and crucial changes within the Community of Christ/Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints denomination over the course of the late twentieth century. Specifically, tour performances offer a window into the historical memories that the church deemed important, show how it desired itself to be known by the wider world, and reflect how the denomination interacted with its competitors and changing allies. The Kirtland Temple tours tell as much about the Community of Christ's general leftward turn in the late twentieth century as they reveal about changing academic knowledge of the Kirtland Temple's past. Indeed, guides constantly were correcting or changing tour content to reflect new understandings of the history and the meaning of the temple.