TORCH
TRINITY Journal
November 30, 2013 • Volume 16 • Number 2 • ISSN 1598-7140
Torch Trinity Graduate University
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TORCH
TRINITY Journal
Torch Trinity Journal (ISSN 1598-7140) is a peer-reviewed publication
of Torch Trinity Graduate University, located in Seoul, Korea, focusing on scholarly articles from all theological disciplines that promote
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S. Steve Kang (Gordon Conwell Theo. Sem.)
Julius J. Kim (Westminster Sem. Cal.)
Jung-Sook Lee (Torch Trinity)
Paul C. H. Lim (Vanderbilt University)
Elsie Ann McKee (Princeton Theo. Sem.)
David Parker (WEA Theo. Com.)
David Shenk (Eastern Menn. Missions)
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© TTGU Press 2013. All rights reserved. Printed in Korea.
TORCH
TRINITY Journal
Volume 16, Number 2, November 30, 2013
Contents
Cristian G. Rata
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan: An Update and Criticism
Cephas T. A. Tushima Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
89
118
Rolex Cailing
“That You May Proclaim His Excellencies”: The Missional Use of the Old Testament
in 1 Peter
138
Lauren J. Kim
Accreditation and Affiliation in India’s
Higher Education
156
Won-Bo Cho
Virtual Church Leadership 183
TTJ 16.2 (2013): 89-117
ISSN 1598-7140
The Emgergence of Israel in Canaan:
An Update and Criticism
Cristian G. Rata
Torch Trinity Graduate University, Korea
The Late Bronze Age remains an important period for the formation of Israel, whether one accepts the Biblical record or not. If one
accepts the biblical story, the Late Bronze age is the time of the exodus
from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and the period of the Judges. For
those who do not accept the biblical story, they still have to make sense
of the “proto-Israelites”1 of Iron Age I from the highlands,2 and the
appearance of Israel in the Merneptah Stele.3 This article assumes that
1. See Raz Kletter, “Can a Proto-Israelite Please Stand Up? Notes on the
Ethnicity of Iron Age Israel and Judah,” in I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient
Times, ed. Aren M. Maeir and Pierre de Miroschedji (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006), 573-586. He argues convincingly that we can already speak
about “Israelites” in the Iron Age I. William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? (Grand Rapids: MI: Eerdmans, 2003) also
refers to some of the people in the hill country of Canaan as “proto-Israelites”
(see p. 154 etc.).
2. More specifically, there is a clear increase in the settled population in
the central hill country (Ephraim) and Transjordanian highlands. The evidence
for a substantial increase in the number of villages at the beginning of Iron Age
I is not disputed and is found in numerous publications. See especially the summary of Ann E. Killebrew, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study
of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300-199 B.C.E. (Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), and the updated bibliography there. More
recently, see Ann. E. Killebrew, “The Social Boundaries of a “Mixed Multitude,”
in I Will Speak the Riddles, 571. For the demographic surge, see also Dever, Who
Were the Early Israelites, 153.
3. For a detailed discussion of the Merneptah Stele and a possible association with a relief from Karnak previously attributed to Ramesses II, see L. Stager,
“Merneptah, Israel and Sea Peoples: New Light on an Old Relief,” Eretz-Israel
18 (1985): 56-65. For a more recent analysis of this Stele and its relationship
to Israel see Michael G. Hasel, “Merneptah’s Reference to Israel: Critical Issues
for the Origin of Israel,” in Critical Issues in Early Israelite History, ed. Richard S.
Hess, Gerald A. Klingbeil, and Paul J. Ray Jr. (Winona Lake, IN.: Eisenbrauns,
2008), 47-60; See also Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 204-208. Note also
the balanced analysis of Kent L. Sparks, Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
the Israelites (or if one prefers the “proto-Israelites”) were already found
in the hill country (especially Ephraim) of the Iron Age I and that there
was an actual “Israel” found in Canaan around 1200 BCE.4 The related
questions that emerge are: who are these Israelites and where did they
come from?
Recent scholarship tries to avoid the mistakes of the past in which
the Iron Age Israelites were identified mainly with the earlier dissatisfied
Canaanite peasants of LBA (the so-called “social revolution theory”).5
Instead, the trend is to talk about a “mixed multitude theory.”6 This
new theory interprets both the biblical and archaeological evidence “as
reflecting a nonhomogeneous, multifaceted, and complex process of Israelite formation and crystallization.”7 It concludes that the inhabitants
from the hill country “most likely comprised different elements of the
Late Bronze Age society, namely, the rural Canaanite population, displaced peasants and pastoralists, and lawless ‘apiru and shasu.”8 Outside
elements probably included “run-away” slaves from Egypt and other
nonindigenous groups such as Midianites, Kenites, and Amalekites.9
(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998). For an excellent discussion about Israel
in the Merneptah stela as a distinct group that is related with later (monarchic)
Israel, see Avraham Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion
and Resistance (London: Equinox, 2006), 163-168. For even earlier evidence
(though disputed) that Israel was in Canaan (c. 1400 B.C.), see the recent article
of Peter van der Veen, Christoffer Theis, and Manfred Görg, “Israel in Canaan
(Long) on Before Merneptah? A Fresh Look at Berlin Statue Pedestal Relief,
Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 2, no. 4 (November 2010): 15-25.
4. For a recent convincing argument that this is indeed the case, see Ralph
K. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013).
5. In my opinion this theory associated with George Mendenhall and Norman Gottwald is rightly called the “revolting peasant theory” by A. Rainey,
“Can You Name the Panel with the Israelites? Rainey’s Challenge,” BAR 17, no.
6 (November/December 1991): 59-60. One major problem with this theory is
the complete lack of textual evidence from the Late Bronze Age. See also Faust,
Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 178-182. But see Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 182189.
6. For an excellent review of four of the major schools of thought about
the emergence of Israel in Canaan see the article of Ann. E. Killebrew, “Social
Boundaries,” 555-572. Note that Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 181-182,
supports the “mixed multitude” theory. He calls them a “motley crew” which
includes urban dropouts, the ‘apiru and other “social bandits,” refugees, and
pastoral nomads.
7. Killebrew, “Social Boundaries,” 566.
8. Killebrew, “Social Boundaries,” 571.
9. Killebrew, “Social Boundaries.” See also more recently Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 186-187. He also accepts the theory that “ancient Israel was composed
of peoples who came from various backgrounds…probably even a group who
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
91
In my opinion, this is a welcome and improved theory about a complex and difficult subject.10 However, it is not without major problems.
First, it remains vague in its description because it does not attempt to
give an approximate break up of this “mixed multitude.” Second, it runs
the danger of trying to “pacify” or unite (almost) all previous theories.11
This “mixed multitude” seems to support (at least partially) the conquest model, the peaceful infiltration, social revolution, and the pastoral
Canaanite theories. It remains to prove, however, how such a mixed and
diverse crowd could unite together and get along well enough during
Iron Age I in Canaan to become the Israel of the Bible. At this point
there is no plausible theory that is able to unite such a diverse group into
what later would become Israel.12 The greatest problem with the “mixed
fled from Egypt.” The original group included many Shasu along with some nonsedentary ‘outcast’ population. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 125 also
supports the ‘mixed multitude’ make up of early Israel. For him, How Israel Became a People, 208: “most of the early Israelites entered Canaan from the east as
transhumant pastoralists.” And “if the ancient Hebrews were not Shasu, “they
must have closely resembled them.” Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 90.
10. Note that the Biblical record in Joshua and Judges does indicate that
the Israelites were joined by other people groups (see especially Joshua 6:23-35;
Joshua 10-11 etc.). The expression “mixed multitude” is from Exodus 12:38.
11. On these two points see Faust’s effort to bring some clarity in Israel’s
Ethnogenesis, 172-175. Faust says that the “consensus today is that all previous
suggestions have some truth regarding the origins of the ancient Israelites.” The
point of dispute has to do with the rations of the various groups in the Iron I
population. Faust, 173.
12. But see Faust’s attempt to explain how these groups merged, Israel’s
Ethnogenesis, 173-175. Killebrew, “Social Boundaries,” 570, briefly addresses
the problem of explaining the bonds that linked “this loosely interconnected,
kinship-based rural society” and their clear isolation from the fellow Canaanites in the lowlands. In her opinion “ideology may have played a key role in
the process.” More specifically, she notes that a number of scholars “stressed
that Yahweh worship must have been introduced into Israel from outside” perhaps through their contact with the Midianites or other outside groups. Noting
the “boundary” that exists between the highland villages and the sites in the
lowlands, she concludes that this “border may have been the result of social,
economic, or ideological differences between the lowland sites and some of the
highland settlements.” See “Social Boundaries,” 571. She is more specific in her
earlier book on this issue as she gives more emphasis to the importance of religion: “Over time these disparate groups were united by the worship of Yahweh,
a powerful ideology that formed the core of early Israelite ethnogenesis and
distinguished them from their Canaanite origins.” See Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity, 150. I find her explanations confusing as she seems to give considerable
weight to religion (but note “over time”), while she also explains the “boundary”
between the highland villages and the lowland sites as being “the result social
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
multitude” theory is that there is no convincing archaeological support
for it. If we are having a very difficult time to distinguish between Israelites and Canaanites, how then could we possibly distinguish between
the various groups that supposedly made up this “mixed multitude?” In
fact, most of these theories that argue for a “mixed multitude” present
the majority of the “proto-Israelites” as rural Canaanites,13divided into
peasants and pastoralists.
The goal of this paper is to test the aforementioned “Canaanites to (proto) Israelites” theory.14 While there can be little doubt that
some Canaanites were part of (proto) Israel,15 it will be shown that the
and economic, or ideological difference” (italics mine). In any case, it is not clear
how the worship of Yahweh (presumably brought from the outside by a small
number of slaves or nomads) won the day and became the deity of the majority
indigenous Canaanites.
13. See especially Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 153. He specifically
states that the highland settlers were not “foreign invaders.” For Faust, Israel’s
Ethnogenesis, 173, the ethnic (or ‘identity’) group by the name of Israel (as mentioned in the Merneptah Stela) was “the most dominant one.” Killebrew, despite
the fact that she favors a “mixed multitude” theory, thinks that recent archaeological evidence supports the indigenous, probably nonurban, Canaanite origin
for the Iron I inhabitants of the hill country villages. “Social Boundaries,” 562,
14. Note that even the term ‘Canaanite’ is disputed today. Thus, Mark
Smith avoids the term because it “is a misleading term that often clouds analysis.” Because too little is known of a coherent Canaanite culture, he uses the
broader term “West Semitic.” The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 597,
Kindle. Richard Hess also prefers this term in his Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007). In my opinion the term
is too broad to be of much use, especially for this essay. No one would argue that
the Israelites were not a West Semitic people. If I had adopted this broad term
this essay could not be written because both the Canaanites and the Israelites
were West Semitic people. But note that the later Moabites and Edomites were
also Semites, however, the Israelites were clearly not Moabites or Edomites. For
this essay, I follow Beth Alpert-Nakhai, Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and
Israel (ASOR Books 7. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2001),
25-26, on the terms Canaan and Canaanites. Thus, geographically Canaan refers to the territory extending from central Lebanon to Israel’s desert region, and
from the Jordan Valley to the Mediterranean. The Canaanites are the residents
of the city-states from this general area (though my concern is mostly with the
area “from Dan to Beer-Sheba”) who shared elements of religion, architecture,
language and material culture. While the Bible suggests that the geographical
area of Canaan contained a mixture of people (Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites,
Canaanites, and etc.), at this point no real distinction can me made convincingly
between these groups based on the archaeological evidence.
15. See note 1.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
93
archaeological evidence does not support the theory that early Israel
(or proto-Israel) was formed mostly of Canaanites. To prove my point,
I will enter act with two major recent works that argue that early Israel
was not formed of indigenous Canaanites. Subsequently, I will deliver
the essential elements that support the argument that early Israel was
different from the indigenous Canaanites: food, burial practices, settlement patterns, and the cult. While the focus in this paper will be on the
archaeological evidence, it is useful to review briefly the Egyptian textual
evidence of the preceding Late Bronze Age period.
Textual Evidence
The Egyptian records by themselves are not very helpful for an
attempt to reconstruct the settlement pattern of Canaan during the Late
Bronz period.16 They consist mainly of a series of military campaigns
and are useful mostly for the Asiatic toponyms mentioned in them and
for the “people” that are encountered in these campaigns. The difficulty comes when one tries to identify these toponyms with the known
places in Canaan and when one attempts to figure out the social and
political condition of the groups of people mentioned in the inscriptions. The Amarna Letters (c. 1360-1330 B.C.)17 offer some solutions.
Their shorcomings in illuminating the Late Bronze Age are due to the
vagueness in the descriptions and due also to the short period that they
cover.18
Despite the shortcomings of the Egyptian texts, the following brief
sketch is possible and generally accepted about the Canaanite landscape
during the Late Bronze Age.19 After the expulsion of the Hyksos, the
Egyptian policy does not seem to have been developed cleary. Egypt
probably relied mainly on military campaigns concentrated on the
main highways. After the rebellion at Megiddo, Egyptians adopted
more aggressive imperial messures to control the local princes by having
16. For a recent analysis of Late Bronze age Canaan see my article “The
Canaanite Landscape during the Late Bronze Age,” Canon & Culture 6, no. 1
(2012): 39-68. The discussion in this section relies mainly on this article.
17. For a discussion about the chronology and the type of correspondence
found in the Amarna Letters see W. L. Moran, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore:
The John Hopkins University Press, 1992), xiii-xxxix. For my research, the socalled “vassal correspondence” between the officials from Syria-Palestine and
the Egyptian court are of special importance. See the brief discussion below and
my article from note 16.
18. The vagueness result because they assume that the toponyms and people mentioned in them are well known to the addressee.
19. See Rata, “The Canaanite Landscape,” 59-60.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
regular campaings and by establishing treaties and marriage alliances.
Thus, during the LB I there is strong evidence of an increasing Egyptian
authority in Canaan concentrated on the major routes and cities. The
information about the fringe areas (Shephelah, hill country, eastern side
of Jordan etc.) is almost completely lacking.
Our knowledge of the more turbulent Late Bronze Age IIA is illuminated by the Amarna tablets. During this time, most likely due to
internal weakness, the Egyptians paid little attention to events outside
their borders. The texts support a decrease in the city population; there
were constant threats from the ‘Apiru and other outcasts from areas that
used to be under Egyptian control. For the first time we get some understanding about the settlements in the hill country. There are a few great
cities (e.g., Hazor and Shechem) which act as territorial kingdoms with
control over extensive areas.
During the 19th dynasty (LB IIB), the Egyptians took a more active
role in Canaan by establishing various administrative centers to improve
their military and economic interests. Public security seems to have
improved and the threat from non-sedentary groups (e.g., ‘Apiru and
Shasu) seem to be contained.
One text deserve special attention in connection with Late Bronze
Canaan and the appearance of ancient Israel: the Merneptah Stele (c.
1208 BCE).20 Since this text was discussed extensively in literature,21
it is sufficient to say that most interpreters recognize the mention of
Israel as a people group22 somewhere in southern Canaan, perhaps to
the east of Gezer which is also mentioned in the text. Thus, Hoffmeier
believes that the mention of Israel in the Merneptah Stele “suggests
that tribal Israel was already a significant presence in the Levant” before
20. For an Egyptian text that may mention Israel even earlier, see the last
article in note 3.
21. For references see note 3.
22. But notice the indefensible position of Emauel Pfoh, The Emergence
of Israel in Ancient Palestine (Equinox: London, 2009), 171-72, who are argues
that the only possibility, on the basis of a positive epigraphic identification of
‘Israel’ in Merneptah’s stele, is that such a name had survived afterwards in the
territory and was adopted later by the people from the highlands. His position
is close to that of G. W. Ahlström, Who Were the Israelites (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 1986), 37-43. For Pfoh, “if Merneptah’s ‘Israel’ is a people – as the
hieroglyohic determinative signs mark – we should rather think of some kind of
tradition for the name to survive in the Omride kingdom and then in Judah’s
later self-identification.” I find puzzling his ‘if,’ as it is well known that that the
determinative in front of Israel is for a people group. Note that even a ‘minimalist’ like Niels Peter Lemche, Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on
the Israelite Society before the Monarchy (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 430-431, thinks that
the Israel of Merneptah’s stele is “a fully developed tribal organization.”
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
95
1200 BCE.23 This text is significant because it is the earliest mention of
Israel outside of the Bible, and Israel seems to be an important people
group distinct from the inhabitants of the other Canaanite cities at the
end of Late Bronze Age.
The archaeological sources are more promising for describing early
Israel, especially considering the latest published surveys,24 but it is my
perception that a good understanding of the transition from the MB II
to the LB I is lacking in the archaeological circles.25 A more major problem is the fact that the results from the surveys are inherently vague; in
the best case they make a distinction between a LB I and a LB II occupation of the site.26 The situation from the excavated is better for establishing settlement patterns, but some of the supposed gaps at certain
sites (e.g., Tell Beit Mirsim, Jericho, Shechem) have been recently questioned.27 Despite these shortcomings, my analysis will continue with the
reasonable assumption that there is considerable evidence now available
from the excavated sites to attempt an in-depth analysis of burial practices, diet, and even cultic life. Two recent works that rely mainly on the
archaeological data are especially relevant for this discussion.
23. James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996), 33. See also Volmar Fritz, The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.E. (Atlanta: SBL, 2011), 80-82, who sees Israel as a people a
reality at the end of the Late Bronze Age. It is not clear, however, their origin,
composition, and exact settlement region. On the Israel of Merneptah Stela see
also notes 3 and 4.
24. See bibliography.
25. See W. G. Dever, “The Chronology of Syria-Palestine: Current Issues,”
BASOR 288 (November 1992): 3, 14-17. He suggests a transitional MB III/LB
IA period (1500-1450 B.C.), but there is no agreement as to when the transition
between MB and LB takes place.
26. Note also that the findings may be used only as positive evidence. One
can establish that people were present at a site during particular periods. The
determination of gaps in settlement e silentio, by the fact that pottery from certain periods is missing, is unreliable. See M. Weippert, “The Israelite ‘Conquest’
and the Evidence from Transjordan,” in Symposia Celebrating the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1900-1975),
ed. F. M. Cross (Cambridge: ASOR, 1979), 28 and bibliography there for some
problems of surface surveys. For a more recent discussion on the problems of
the surveys, see Y. Garfinkel and Saar Ganor, “Khirbet Qeiyafa in Survey and
in Excavations: A Response to Y. Dagan,” Tel Aviv 37 (2010): 77. Also, to my
knowledge there are no specialist reports published on most of the surveyed sites
(e.g., Osteologist, Paleobotanist, etc.).
27. Some of the suggestions for these gaps were made on the basis of the
lack of certain ceramic groups. This evidence from silence is inconclusive.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
Two Recent Proposals: Faust and Hawkins28
In this section I will briefly present and analyze two recent proposals that deal with Israel’s emergence in Canaan.29 They are analyzed
because both of them are highly relevant to my thesis due to the fact
that they move away from the theory still espoused by many scholars
that most of the Israelites were Canaanites.30 More significantly, both of
these works are important because they make very good use of the latest
archaeological findings and mount themselves solid critiques against the
thesis that most of the early Israel is formed of Canaanites.
In 2008 Avraham Faust published a book about Israel’s ethnogenesis. As the title of the book suggests, Israel’s Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance, Faust is mainy preoccupied about Israel’s
ethnogenesis – the historical creation of a people with a sense of collective identity.31 Thus, while he realizes the importance and relevance of
the question of Israelite’s origins in the sense of descent, he separates
28. To this could be added the fairly recent work in English of Volkmar
Fritz, The Emergence of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries BCE (Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2011). However, this book will not be discussed
in detail because it is based on his considerably earlier German monograph from
1996, Die Entstehung Israels im 12. und 11. Jahrhundert v. Chr. For Fritz, The Emergence of Israel, 135, the radical change in settlement patterns “were the result of
a change in the political population; they cannot be understood as the continuation of the Late Bronze Age city culture.” He discusses the settlement patterns,
the layout of the settlements, and the accumulation of the four-room houses in
the Early Iron Age settlements. His conclusions are important as they also support the theory that early Israel is formed of “new settlers,” probably connected
with the Hapiru and Shasu from various sources. According to Fritz, The Emergence of Israel, 137, “the resettlement of the land does not go back to the former
city population but rather is the result of groups settling down, those who had
previously persisted outside the city in an unsettled way of life.” Later, he also
thinks that “groups of different origin congregated together into a community,
which then during the monarchic period let to the idea of a single people.” See
Fritz, The Emergence of Israel, 138.
29. I am referring to the works of Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis and the more
recent work (2013) of Hawkins, How Israel Became a People. At the same time I
will pay special attention to the works of Killebrew and Dever. See note 1 for
the 11 references cited.
30. See the introduction and references above. Finkelstein, Dever, and Killebrew are some of the most influential scholars who believe that most of the
Israelites were Canaanites. Even though they all seem to agree that early Israel
was formed from a “mixed multitude” – they also believe that most of them were
Canaanites, whether “dissatisfied peasant” (Dever) or pastoralists (Finkelstein).
31. See Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 19 for some working definitions of ‘ethnogenesis.’
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
97
it and considers it irrelevant to the issue addressed in his book and “to
the understanding of the nature and formation of Israelite ethnicity.”32
In his methodology he relies mainly on archaeology which is “well
equipped to deal with the ancient society.” He starts by focusing on
Iron Age II “when it is agreed that there was an Israelite ethnicity,”33
and then traces the emergence of these features back to the end of the
Late Bronze Age. In most cases the archaeological record is examined
by itself, without agenda influenced by the written sources. Since the
texts are “extrememly problematic on issues of dating and redaction,”
and they demonstrate “extreme partiality and bias,”34 the main research
questions “should be delineated based on an exhaustive examination of
patterns in the material record.” Anthropological methods are used to
explain the archaeological finds.35
While identifying ethnic36 groups in the archaeological record is
“notoriously difficult,”37 Faust is convinced that “in most cases, clear
relationships between material culture and ethnicity can be identified,
however complicated they may be . . . , and the potential of archaeological inquiry to deal with such issues should not be underestimated.”
With this background and methodology, Faust proceeds in the
second part of his monograph to examinate archaeologically the markers for Israelite ethnicity. After a brief note on pottery and ethnicity, 38
32. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 28. This issue of origin is for Faust “of lesser
importance for the presence discussion, as interesting and important as it may
be.” However, it interesting to note the comment on the same page in note 15:
“The only exception is if one accepts the view that all Israelites came from Egypt
– in which case their ethnogenesis was, of course earlier, making the study of
their ethnogenesis in the present context, including this monograph, obsolete.”
Note that Faust does discuss the issue of origins in Chapter 18 of his book.
33. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 8. Iron I was a key period when the symbols
of identity were canonized, especially in the later interaction with the Philistines.
34. But note the comment of Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 17: “The difficulties inherent in any attempt to identify symbolic traits in the archaeological record require that attention be given also to written sources. Although sometimes
quite problematic, a careful examination of these sources is needed in order to
extract maximum information and gain insights to the society in question . . . .”
35. All the citations in this paragraph are from Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis,
5.
36. Faust starts from the premise that ethnic groups define themselves in
relation to, and in contrast with other groups. Thus, the ethnic boundaries of a
group are defined by “the idiosyncratic use of specific material and behavioral
symbols as compared with other groups.” Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 15.
37. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 11.
38. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 34. He picks up the issue of “pots and peo-
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he proceeds to discuss the following “ethnic markers” for ancient Israel:
meat consumption (the avoidance of pig meat in the diet of the people
who lived in the highlands at the beginning of Iron Age I), the absence of
painted decoration on the local pottery of Israel’s highlands, the almost
complete absence of imported pottery, the pottery repertoire (very limited as compared to the Canaanite and Philistine), the four-room house,
circumcision, and hierarchy and equality.39
The chapter on hierarchy and equality is based on Faust’ analysis of the previous chapters. Thus, the Israelites’ “egalitarian ethos” is
“reflected in the limited repertoire of Iron Age I pottery, the four-room
house plan, and the lack of imported pottery.” He now adds a few additional traits: the burials, the temples, and royal inscriptions.
Faust notes the virtual absence of Iron Age burials in the highlands
prior to the ninth-eight centuries, and points out the sharp contrast
to the Late Bronze Age in all parts of the country (highlands and
lowlands).40 The following quote is highly relevant for this point:41
While there was a variety of burials in Late Bronze Age Canaan, which
could result from several reasons of which social hierarchy is but one,
the Iron I lacks even the ‘multiple cave burials’ that characterized the
highland throughout most of the second millennium BCE . . . , therefore
breaking a continuity that prevailed through wide segments of Canaanite
society for almost 800 years . . . . Even if a few Iron I burials are identified in the highlands . . . , the general pattern is striking: during the Late
Bronze Age the highlands were only sparsely settled but many tombs are
known . . . , while during the Iron Age the area was filled with settlements
but such burials are practically absent.
Faust’s conclusion from these observations is that the individuals from
this period were buried in simple inhumations, and the lack of observable burials reflects an egalitarian ideology which is in sharp contrast to
Late Bronze Age Canaanite traditions.42
The lack of real temples from most sites (especially from Iron I)
that can be labeled as Israelite is also in contrast to the Late Bronze Age
ples” later in chapter 19, but here he makes it clear that “ethnicity could very
well be expressed through decoration or repertoire.”
39. Note that the argument about circumcision (ch. 10) is based mainly
on the Bible and not on archaeological data.
40. For a more in-depth analysis of this point see A. Faust, “Mortuary
Practices, Society and Ideology: The Lack of Highlands Iron Age I Burials in
Context,” IEJ 54 (2004): 174-190.
41. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93.
42. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
99
when temples were abundant.43 Even during the Iron Age II, the Israelite
sites show “no signs of an organized or public cult.” This again stands
in contrast to several Canaanite-Phoenician villages where an organized
cult is present and there is similarity to Bronze Age Canaanite villages.44
The absence to date of an Israelite royal inscription, despite the
fact that Israel is much more excavated than its ancient neighbors (e.g.,
Aram, Amon, Moab, Philistia), is another trait that Faust attributes
to an egalitarian ethos. He notes that the Siloam inscription does not
reference the king, the kingdom, and even God.45
Based mainly on these observations, Faust ventures in the fourth
section of his book (ch. 18) to make some comments about the origins
of ancient Israel. Here is Faust’s conclusion:46
[I]t seems as if ancient Israel was composed of peoples who came from
various backgrounds: a semi-nomadic population who lived on the fringe
of settlement, settled Canaanites who for various reasons changed their
identity, tribes from Transjordan, and probably even a group who fled
Egypt. In the end it is likely that many, if not most, Israelites had Canaanite origins. This was clearly the case in the period of the monarchy,
in which many Canaanites in the lowland became Israelities. The intake
of people of various backgrounds was at times the main source of Israel’s
population increase, in addition to natural growth; they all integrated
and assimilated into the main group Israel. The original group – those
who came on the “Mayflower” to use Dever’s metaphor – likely included
many Shasu along with (given their importance in Late Bronze Egyptian
sources on Cisjordan) some non-sedentary “outcast” population.
According to Faust’s reconstruction, the primary source of the settlement’s earliest population is to be found in seminomads found on
both sides of the Jordan. These semi-nomads probably came from among
the Shasu groups and perhaps included a small group of ‘local’ ‘Apiru
(these are the outcast Canaanites). Thus, “it is likely that the early settlers did not originate directly from Canaanite, or at least, mainstream
settled Canaanite society; they more likely came from groups who were
43. For example, Daniel Warner, The Archaeology of Canaanite Cult: An
Analysis of Canaanite Temples from the Middle and Late Bronze Age in Palestine (Saarbrücken: VDM Publishing, 2008), 236, finds 18 temples from seven different
sites in Canaan.
44. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93-94. Note also his important observation
that religion is an important factor for the enhancement of ethnicity. He relies
for this on the following article of L. E. Stager, “Forging an Identity: the Emergence of Ancient Israel,” in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. M. D.
Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 123-75.
45. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 94-95
46. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 186-87.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
not fully sedentary, did not use imported and decorated pottery, had a
limited ceramic repertoire, used simple inhumations, and embraced a
relatively egalitarian ethos.”47
Very recently, in 2013, Ralph K. Hawkins published a book about
how Israel became a people.48 More precisely, his goal is “to reconstruct
the emergence of early Israel as a socio-ethnic entity with its own distinctive culture in the hill-country of Canaan.”49 He tried “to approach
the subject of Israel’s emergence in Canaan from a neutral perspective,”
by considering all the evidence and by drawing reasonable conclusions
from the data.50
The two main “texts” used by Hawkins to accomplish his goal
are the Hebrew Bible and archaeology.51 For him, even though the
biblical narratives are “ideologically driven,” the tremendous emphasis
in the Bible on recalling and remembering the past shows that we are
dealing with a book very concerned with the subject of history.52 More
specifically, even though the writer of the book of Joshua is “preaching”
by using material selectively and has primarily religious concerns, the
book is still “historical in nature.”53
After a review of “classical and recent models of the Israelite settlement” in chapter 2, he states that the theory “that the Israelites originated from among the indigenous population of Canaan appears to have
become the most popular view today, and it is taught in many gradu47. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 183-84. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 178-183,
devotes several pages to evaluate the ‘Canaanite Origins School.” His conclusion
from these pages is that the first Israelites “were most likely not settled Canaanites,” and “the Canaanite origins theory is insufficient.” There is a low level of
continuity with the preceding culture, and if the first Israelites were Canaanites,
it cannot be explained why they did not bury their dead like their ancestors
among others.
48. See note 4 for the full reference. A specific question that he is concerned about is the following: “How did the Israelites define themselves, in
contrast to the indigenous inhabitants of the land of Canaan?” See Hawkins,
How Israel Became a People, 23-24.
49. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 25-26.
50. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 264, Kindle.
51. Archaeology alone is not sufficient to reconstruct the history of ancient Israel. See his discussion on the limitations of both the texts and archaeological data and the call for a ‘holistic approach’ that takes into consideration all
the available materials on pp. 26-28.
52. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 13-14. Note, however, that
Hawkins is not arguing that the biblical writers wrote history in the modern
sense. See his useful explanations in chapter 1 (pp. 3-18). The biblical text is
both kerygmatic and is a valuable source of historiographical data.
53. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 18-23.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
101
ate schools and seminaries as fact.”54 This view, defended most recently
by William G. Dever, is rejected by Hawkins.55 He concludes that all
of these models (classical and contemporary) have strengths and weaknesses.56 Even though the indigenous models are “in vogue”, there is an
increasing awareness of the need to consider the role of nommadic outsiders. More specifically, the Shasu which are mentined in Late Bronze
Age Egyptian texts.
The next two chapters (3 and 4) deal with the possible date for
the Exodus, and concludes that the biblical and extrabiblical evidence
points to the late date for the exodus, in the 13th century BCE. Also,
his understanding of the Merneptah stele supports 1210 BCE as the
terminus ante quem for the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan.57
After Hawkins looks at the major cities of the conquest in chapter
five (especially Jericho, Ai, Hazor, and Dan), he proceeds in chapters
six through ten to deal specifically with the early Israelite settlement.
Despite the fact that it is very difficult to use physical data for ethnic
identification,58 it is possible. The following traits are used to identify
the highland sites from Ephraim and Manasse as Israelite: settlement
pattern, site layout, the foor-room house, pottery, and foodways.59
Hawkins’ conclusion is that the earliest Israelites were seminomads
with an economy based on sheep husbandry similar to the Shasu groups
encountered by the Egyptians. However, he agrees with the biblical tradition and the views of many recent scholars, that even early Israel was a
“mixed group.” What united the disparate tribes and the “mixed group”
on non-Israelites, all of whom participated in an exodus from Egypt,
was “social and religious ideology.”60 Unlike most of the recent scholars,
Hawkins emphasizes the religious ideology of this “holy nation” who
was committed to Yahweh in a covenant ceremony at Sinai as the main
unifiying factor. Others could be ‘converted’ and join the “holy nation”
by embracing Yahwism.61
54. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 46.
55. See further the discussion below. Dever’s main work is referenced in
note 1.
56. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 48.
57. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 90.
58. Note that this is also recognized by Faust in the discussion above. For
Hawkins, Israel’s identity did not imply a racial principle; it had more to do with
self-ascription and ascription by others.
59. See especially Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 139.
60. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 155-56.
61. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 156-158.
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For Hawkins, the data points to “a modified version of Alt-Noth
hypothesis that focuses on culture scale.”62 In conclusion, the textual
and archaeological data militates against the predominant theories with
their focus on the Canaanite origin for the highland settlers at the end of
the Late Bronze Age. Israel’s emergence occurs as a natural progression
in three stages:63
In the first two stages, the Hebrew tribes exist as a domestic-scale culture
that was originally transhumant but, in a subsequent stage, sedentarized
in highland villages. In the third stage, the sedentarized Israelite village
culture developed into a political-scale culture.
Evaluation and Criticism
It is significant to note that both of these recent major works that
dealt with the emergence of Israel in Canaan moved away from the
indigenous origin hypothesis for the early Israelites. At the same time,
however, there is agreement with many of the scholars on the other side
in that there seems to be a consensus that early Israel was made up of a
“mixed-group.”64
It is also significant that in both of these evaluations there is
overlap. Thus, both Faust and Hawkins agree that the evidence from
pottery, foodways, and the four-room house all argue against the
indigenous origin of earliest Israel, the one found as a people group in
the Merneptah stele. In my opinion, most of the traits discussed by these
scholars are important and relevant to effectively counter the popular
theory that the early Israelites were Canaanites: the foodways, pottery
repertoire and forms, settlement pattern, burials, the four-room house,
and worship places. Even if one may quibble with some or with each of
these traits, the cumulative evidence is too strong to be neglected. Thus,
someone who supports the indigenous Canaanites theory would have
to explain why the lowland Canaanites left their cities to settle in the
highlands, changed their diet and burial practices, stopped decorating
62. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 192-94. He sees the Alt-Noth
hypothesis as comporting much more closely with the evidence. However, he
believes there were military campaigns in the first stage (unlike Alt-Noth), campaigns that “were essentially sorties” with Gilgal as a possible military staging
ground. There was a conquest, but it was certainly not a “blitzkrieg.” See his
conclusion on p. 206.
63. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 192-93.
64. And to these can be added the work of Volkmar Fritz. See note 27 for
details.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
103
and importing their pottery, and developed (what seems to be) an
egalitarian ethos.
For the rest of this essay, I would like to briefly review and present
what I consider the strongest evidences for the distinctiveness of the
Israelites. In the process, I will criticize some of the previous proposals and I will also point out a problematic (major) omission in recent
discussions about the emergence of ancient Israel and suggest how the
approach to this issue be improved. Though the evidence from pottery
forms and repertoire is highly relevant and important, the traits that I
consider the strongest for the distinctiveness of early Israel are foodways, burials, settlement pattern, and religion. In fact, as we shall see,
religion is the major omission in most recent discussion of early Israel.
Foodways: Meat Consumption
When attempting to define an ethnic identity, one of the most
important features for anthropologists is cuisine.65 In the context of
ancient Israel the relevant trait is the avoidance of pig meat. In fact,
even Israel Finkelstein, who believes that the Israelites were Canaanites,
recognizes that “pig taboos are emerging as the main, if not the only
avenue that can shed light on ethnic boundaries in the Iron I . . . [;] this
may be the most valuable tool for the study of ethnicity of a given, single
Iron I site.”66
Both Faust67 and Hawkins68 recognize the importance of pig taboos
and that the fact that pig remains are almost completely absent at Iron
Age I sites in the highlands. While this trait is usually used to contrast
65. See J. Golden, Ancient Israel and Canaan (New York: Oxford, 2009), 63.
For him this is “one important indicator that a new, distinct cultural identity
was in the works.”
66. I. Finkelstein, “Ethnicity and the Origin of the Iron I Settlers in the
Highlands of Canaan: Can the Real Israel Stand Up?” BA 59, no. 4 (1996): 206.
See also I. Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New
Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origins of Its Sacred Texts (New York: Touchstone,
2001), 119-20. In another article Finkelstein recognizes that L. Stager was correct when he predicted that “food taboos, more precisely, pig taboos, are emerging as the main, if not only, avenue that can shed light on ethnic boundaries in
the Iron I.” See Finkelstein, “Pots and People Revisited: Ethnic Boundaries in
the Iron Age I,” in The Archaeology of Israel, Constructing the Past, Interpreting the
Present, ed. N. A. Silberman and D. B. Small (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, 1997), 230.
67. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 35-40.
68. See Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 152-54.
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the Israelites’ diet with that of the Philistines,69 it is also relevant when
compared with the diet of the Canaanites.70
There is no cogent ecological explanation for the lack of pig meat
in the Iron I highland sites, because they are found, “sometimes in large
quantities, in Bronze Age sites in the highlands and lowlands.”71 Faust
correctly points out that “[t]he fact that some of the Bronze Age sites
are villages precludes any claim that pigs are not suitable for a rural
setting and thus are absent from the Iron I highland villages.”72 Since
the archaeological evidence shows that the Canaanites “did not usually
practice pig avoidance,” Faust is correct to conclude that when a site
indicates pork consumption to a small degree, “it can be identified as
both non-Israelite and non-Philistine – leaving us with what we loosely
called ‘Canaanites.’”73
In my opinion, this difference in food preference is a very strong
argument that the Israelites were not Canaanites. Since the Canaanites
in the Late Bronze Age did not avoid pork in both the lowland and the
highlands, and the pig avoidance in the highlands continues from Iron
I into the Iron II (when we know that the people living there are Israelites), it is more reasonable to assume that we are dealing with a new
group in the highlands. And instead of coming up with modern explanations with weak explanatory powers (e.g., ecological reasons, pastoralist
background etc.), it may be more reasonable to accept Israel’s own religious explanation for the taboo (see Lev 11:7-8; Deut 14:8).
69. Note that pig constitutes some 23 percent of the faunal assemblage at
Ashkelon, 18 percent at Miqne/Ekron, etc. See Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 36, for
more complete statistics. In the highlands the percentage of pig bones is usually
under 0.4 percent in Iron Age I.
70. But see the disagreement of Block-Smith with arguments in “Israelite
Ethnicity in Iron I: Archaeology Preserves What Is Remembered and What Is
Forgotten in Israel’s History,” JBL 122, no. 3 (October 2003): 409-10. Also
Emanuel Pfoh, The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (London: Equinox, 2009), 165, does not find convincing the
absence of pig bones as an Israelite ethnic marker. For him, the “taboo on swine
consumption among the Israelites should be explained as rooted in local dietary
manners of the second millennium BCE, which were perhaps related to ecological conditions, as well as the pastoralist background of many of the hill-country
settlers (since pastoralists in general avoid pigs).”
71. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 36-7. See his relevant statistics for pork consumption in Canaan in the Bronze Age.
72. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 37. He also demonstrates that the Israelites
did not consume pork during the Iron Age II.
73. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 39. The statistics show that Canaanite pork
consumption is “somewhere between that of the Israelites, who avoided it, and
the Philistines, who consumed it in large quantities during the Iron Age I.”
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
105
Burials
The importance of burials for the identification of the population
from the highlands at the end of the Late Bronze Age is rarely discussed
in the relevant literature. One important exception to this is Avraham
Faust who dedicates about one page to this issue in his work on Israel’s
ethnogenesis. He discusses this in the context of evaluating Israel’s egalitarian ethos,74 but this is also significant because it further distinguishes
the highland people from the Canaanites of the lowlands and the coast.
We know that there is a virtual lack of early Iron Age burials in the
central highlands, and this is a unique reality because we have hundreds
of burials from other periods, including the Late Bronze Age and later
phases of the Iron Age. Thus, during the Late Bronze Age when there is
a low density of occupation in the highlands, there are a relatively large
number of burials identified and quite distinguishable archaeologically.
In contrast, during the early Iron Age, when we have hundreds of new
settlements in the highlands and an evident population increase, the
burials are almost completely lacking.75 More specifically, “the Iron I
lacks even the ‘multiple cave burials’ that characterized the highland
throughout most of the second millennium BCE, therefore breaking a
continuity that prevailed through wide segments of Canaanite society
for almost 800 years.”76
The logical conclusion for this lack of burials in early Iron I in the
highlands is that the individuals were buried in “simple inhumations,”
and this supports the existence of an egalitarian ethos in early Israel.77
74. See Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 92-93. Avraham Faust deals with this
issue in more detail in the following article: “Mortuary Practices, Society and
Ideology: The Lack of Highlands Iron Age I Burials in Context,” IEJ 54 (2004):
174-90. See also the work of Raz Kletter, “People Without Burials? The Lack
of Iron Age Burials in the Central Highlands of Palestine,” IEJ 52 (2002): 2848, and Elizabeth Bloch-Smith in Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the
Dead (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), and “Resurrecting the Iron I Dead,” IEJ 54
(2004): 77-91.
75. For more on this see Faust, “Mortuary Practices,” 174-83 and Israel’s
Ethnogenesis, 92-93.
76. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93.
77. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93. Notice further the comment of Faust
(personal communication by email on October 31, 2013):“While it is possible
that some Canaanites were buried in simple inhumation during the Late Bronze
Age (possibly in the highlands and the lowlands alike), this is not yet known
(but I assume that some people were buried this way in all periods). We are
familiar with hundreds of LBA burials, but they are more elaborate, and are
easily found archaeologically. The difference between what we know of the LBA
burials and what we know of those of the Iron I is striking . . . .” But note the
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Since burials have an important social role, and societies don’t change
their burial patterns ‘overnight,’ this is another important feature that
distinguishes between the Late Bronze Age Canaanites and the settlers
in the central highlands. Had the highland settlers been Canaanites,
they would have buried their dead like their ancestors.78
Settlement Patterns
Another major reason to infer the presence of a new people group
in the central highlands is the settlement pattern at the end of the Late
Bronze Age.79 We have solid archaeological evidence “of dramatic settlement activity early in the twelfth century B.C.E”80 in the central hill
country. More specifically, there seems to be a dramatic increase in the
number of settlements in the hill country and also in the population.
Thus, Stager estimates an increase from 88 Late Bronze Age sites (c.
200 hectares) and a population of 50,000 people to 678 Iron Age I
sites (c. 600 hectares) and a population of 150, 000 people.81 Most of
the Iron Age I sites (633) were built on new foundations and consisted
of small unwalled villages. The following table shows my personal esti-
comments of Bloch-Smith, “Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I,” 424: “If, as postulated
by this model, Israel incorporated various groups each with its own primordial
and circumstantial features, then in the early stages of assimilation a variety of
traits might be attested among the constituent groups. So, for instance, some
might bury their dead in nearby cave or chamber tombs, while others returned
to distant ancestral grounds.” Unfortunately, Bloch-Smith does not provide solid evidence for these early Iron Age I burials. She also does not accept Faust’s
argument about the egalitarian ethos of early Israel. According to her (personal
communication by email on November 5th, 2013), “Faust’s argument is from
silence – he has no graves to substantiate his position.”
78. See also the tentative conclusion of Killbrew, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity, 176-177, about burial practices.
79. Note that even Bloch-Smith, “Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I,” 402, 411,
recognizes that the new settlements “in territory allegedly settled by Israel” are
a link to Merneptah’s Israel or biblical Israel.
80. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 121. There are many studies that
deal with the settlements in the hill country. See for example the articles in From
Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel, ed. I.
Finlekstein and N. Na’aman, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994. A more
complete list of surveys (compiled by Todd Bolen and A. D. Riddle) in Israel
and Jordan can be found here: (accessed, November 11, 2013) http://www.bibleplaces.com/download/Archaeological%20Surveys%20Bibliography.pdf. See also
the bibliography in Hawkins, How Israel Became a People.
81. He looks at 9 areas including places in Moab and Edom. See Stager,
“Forging an Identity,” 134-35.
107
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
mates based on surveys only from Israel. It includes estimates from the
Middle Bronze Age II.82
Table 1. Data from surveys in MB II, LB, and IA I Canaan
REGION
MBII
LB
IA I
Upper Galilee
?
3 (+2?)
40
Lower Galilee
28
6 (+3?)
23
Manasseh
135
31
111
Ephraim
60
5 (+1)
115
Benjamin
V
2(+1?)
31(+6?)
Hill country of Judah
23
3(+3?)
18
Beer-Sheba Valley
-
-
9?
Beth Shean Valley
43
21
?
Northern Sinai
300
231
?
TOTAL
375
81
353
It is clear from these surveys that in all these regions there was
a drastic decline in the number of settlements from the MB II period
to the Late Bronze age. In general, the Iron Age I period represents a
“return” to about the same number of sites as during the MB II. The
notable exception is Ephraim where we see almost a doubling in the
number of settlements during the Iron Age I, when compared to the MB
II period. During the Late Bronze age, the sites in Ephraim represent
only 5 percent of the settlements during the Iron Age I. Considering all
the sites from these surveys, the number of Late Bronze Age settlements
is only 22 percent of the number in the Middle Bronze period.
Both the surveys and the analysis of urban Canaan during the Late
Bronze age, clearly suggest a sharp decline in the settled population of
the country, especially in the mountainous regions. On the other hand,
the Iron I period shows almost a “return” to the situation of the MB II
period, at least when considering the number of sites. It almost seems
that there is a cycle which goes from a large settled population (MB II)
to a very small settled population (LB), and back to a large number of
settlements. Broshi suggested that the size of the Late Bronze population in Canaan was less than half the population of MB II, about 60,000
82. The data is based mainly on the works listed in note 79. This table
can be challenged and may need to be adjusted based on the latest surveys.
However, it is very doubtful if the proportions and conclusions will be affected
significantly.
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to 70,000.83 Finkelstein notes that this cycle from MB II to Iron I is
visible especially in the hill country, and he suggests that during the
Late Bronze period, when the permanent settlements “fell apart,” many
of the inhabitants became nomadic. Thus, during the Late Bronze age,
the population did not really shrink in half, rather there was a change
in the proportion of sedentary dwellers to pastoralist groups, with the
pastoralists increasing in numbers. On the other hand, at the end of the
13th century, the socio-economic and political tides turned, and conditions became favorable for groups of pastoralists to settle down, and
they settled down.84
This explanation is not plausible, as Stager has argued that in “symbiotic relations the pastoral component rarely exceeds 10 to 15 percent
of the total population.”85 Also, more importantly, there is no archaeological evidence to support this theory. Faust evaluates the evidence
and concludes that “a ‘local nomads’ theory, which limits the potential
origin of the settlers to Cisjordan, is a near impossibility; it practically
contradicts the historical and geographical contexts.”86 It is also unclear
why, and I think it is unlikely, that the invisible pastoralists of the Late
Bronze Age had a good reason to settle down at the end of this period.
The archaeological data supports a dramatic increase in numbers which
“represents a demographic change that cannot be attributed to natural
birthrates, but must reflect a major influx of new population elements.”87
In this section it is important to briefly address the “Canaanite
origins” theory for the emergence of Israel as it represents an attempt
to explain the new settlements in the hill country. Without doubt, the
most famous and prolific proponent of this theory is William G. Dever.88
83. I. Finkelstein, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement (Jerusalem: Israel
Exploration Society, 1988), 341.
84. Finkelstein, Israelite Settlement, 341-346.
85. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 135. He also notes that considering “the
decline of sedentarists in Canaan throughout the Late Bronze Age it seems unlikely that most of the Iron Age settlers came from indigenous pastoralist backgrounds.” Note also that the assumption that there was a large hill country
nomadic populations in the Late Bronze Age is an argument from silence. Z.
Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (New York:
Continuum, 2001), 91, notes that herders would have found their best areas
on the coastal plains rather than in the hill country. He also notes the lack of
archaeological traces of nomadism from this period.
86. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 178.
87. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People,” 136. Note that this reality is also
a strong argument against the “Canaanite origins” school.” For a strong refutation of the theory that the highlanders were Canaanites see also Faust, Israel’s
Ethnogenesis, 178-82.
88. See his important work in note 1.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
109
According to him, ancient Israel emerged from the indigenous Canaanite population, which occurred when disaffected Canaanites withdrew
to the hill country in “a quest for a new society and new lifestyle. They
wanted to start over. And in the end, that was revolutionary.”89 A great
problem for this theory has already been mentioned, it cannot explain
and account for the dramatic increase of population in the hill country.90
An even more important objection to this theory is the lack
of explanatory power for the new settlement pattern.91 According to
Dever, the driving force behind these peasants was “land reform,”92 and
he points to other rural revolutionary developments as analogies: the
Oneida Community of the 1800s in New York, the community at New
Harmony in southwestern Indiana, eighteenth-century Shaker movement etc. He claims that all these and other reformist movements were
essentially agrarian and focused essentially on social causes.93
The problem is that this explanation is demonstrably false. As
Hawkins recently demonstrated, “none of the groups that Dever uses for
analogies were motivated by social issues or the ideal of agrarian reform.
Instead, they were all founded expressly as religious groups, basing their
formation on specific biblical concepts.”94 Religion is very important,
and the evidence shows that communal groups “appear to typically be
89. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 178.
90. For a good analysis and refutation of the “peasant’s revolt” theory
and other indigenous Canaanite versions of that see the work of D. Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1992), 265-69. The problems of these theories, including those which resort to
ecological explanations (e.g., Thomas L. Thomson) are well presented by Richard Hess, Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2007), 4753-4834, Kindle. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 42, also
provides an important critique of the “social revolution model.”
91. Note also the “explanation” of Pfoh, The Emergence of Israel in Ancient
Palestine, 163, who due to the continuities in material culture speaks of a simple
“realignment of Palestinian society.” Fritz, The Emergence of Israel, 129, is more
convincing when he says that while it cannot be ruled out that some of the city
inhabitants settled outside, “the reestablishment of numerous villages far from
the former city centers during the twelfth and eleventh centuries can hardly be
reasonably understood as a restructuring of the mode of settlement. The difference between the city-states and the village settlements is too great to assume
the same population for both.” He concludes that the new settlements were the
result of a change in the political population, as “they cannot be understood as
the continuation of the Late Bronze age city culture.” See Fritz, The Emergence
of Israel, 135.
92. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 188.
93. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites, 189.
94. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 47.
110
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
motivated by a religious vision.” But, it is exactly this “primordial feature” that most recent interpretations ignore. Hawkins is correct when
he says that trying “to explain early Israelite origins by strictly social or
economic motivations fails to explain the persistent biblical claim that
the earliest Israelites were motivated by a religious vision.”95 Because this
“primordial feature” is so important and neglected, and it is precisely the
most persistent claim for distinctiveness in the biblical tradition, it must
be dealt with in any discussion about Israel’s emergence in Canaan.96
Religion
Even a superficial reading of the Biblical tradition will reveal that
the Israelites viewed themselves as different from the Canaanites mainly
because of their religion. Thus, despite probable small differences in
dress, house plans, ceramic repertoire, and even language, the Israelites
insist in the Biblical tradition that the main difference is religious.97
95. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 47-8. It is difficult not to see that
most theories about the emergence of Israel reflect very much the “spirit of the
age.” A secularized ‘peaceful’ Western society offers models that largely leave
religion out and tend to downplay the bloody conquest that very likely was part
of the settlement. See for example the recent work of Pekka Pitkänen, “Ancient
Israel and Settler Colonialism,” Settler Colonial Studies, forthcoming. He makes a
good argument that the Biblical data presents ancient Israel as a “settler colonial
society” with violence and genocide typical of settler colonial processes.
96. Notice also the lack of explanatory power of the indigenous Canaanites theory for Israel’s biblical traditions. John J. Bimson, “The Origins of Israel
in Canaan: An Examination of Recent Theories,” Themelios 15, no. 1 (October
1989): 7, is certainly correct when he says that any “theory which proposes a
picture so different from the biblical one must provide a plausible explanation of
how the biblical picture arose.” This point is also made by Hawkins, How Israel
Became a People, 42, when he evaluates the “Mendenhall-Gottwald Hypothesis”:
“…the Social Revolution Model fails to offer a sufficient explanation for why
the Hebrew Bible gives an account at such variance with the reconstruction of
the theory.”
97. Bloch-Smith, “Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I,” 425, recognizes that “the
Bible faithfully records religious beliefs as the sole feature distinguishing Israelites from Canaanites .” That there should be continuity with the preceding
Canaanite culture in many of the categories listed above is not surprising both
from the biblical perspective (e.g., Deut 6:10-11) and from a logical perspective.
In other words, if the settlers from the highlands were nomads who came from
outside (e.g., a Shasu group as Faust and Hawkins argued above), what kind of
pottery do we expect them to have produced? Notice Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis,
180, note 12: “The ‘Canaanite’ pottery forms, however, prove nothing . . . .
They were in contact with the Canaanite society throughout the Late Bronze
Age, and these are probably the forms they were familiar with. If these simple
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
111
Despite the Biblical claim,98 reconstructions of early Israel rarely
engage with this “primordial feature” that is significant in discussions
of ethnicity. With few exceptions,99 one must go back forty years to the
work of Mendenhall100 to find any sustained discussion about the importance of religion for early Israel. He emphasized the importance of the
Yahwistic faith and the concept of a community related to Yahweh by
covenant for early Israel:101
Israel was the name of the large social organization that constituted the
population ruled by Yahweh, and, as the prophets all pointed out, when
it ceased so to be ruled it ceased to have legitimate grounds for corporate
existence . . . . [E]arly Israel was the dominion of Yahweh, consisting of all
those diverse lineages, clans, individuals, and other social segments that,
under the covenant, had accepted the rule of Yahweh and simultaneously rejected the domination of the various local kings and their tutelary
deities – the baalīm. As a necessary corollary, Yahweh was the one who
exclusively exercised the classic functions of the king.
forms were not seen as meaningful, and they probably were not, there would
have been no problem in using them. Moreover, they were probably the only
forms the new settlers knew, and they had to use something.” Notice also A.
Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites?” in Israel: Ancient Kingdom or
Late Invention?, ed. Daniel I. Block (Nashville: B&H, 2008), 168, who makes a
similar point that “the biblical texts make it plain that the Israelites did not have
a distinct material culture of their own . . . .The distinction between the Israelites and the Canaanites and other nations was to lie in their behavior and their
attitudes to God and other people, rather than in their houses, their tableware,
their dress, or their language.”
98. Note especially the early poem in Judges 5. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 125, is probably correct when he dates this text to the twelfth century
BCE. See also Ex 14 and Dt 32.
99. Note for example the recent work of Hawkins, How Israel Became a
People, 43. He also agrees with Mendenhall that the emphasis in the Bible is on
the Exodus and Sinai covenant as major symbolic expressions of divine aid with
which the new highland settlers identified.
100. See George E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation: The Origins of the
Biblical Tradition (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973).
101. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 28-9. According to Mendenhall,
The Tenth Generation, 24-25, there was a “biblical revolution” that radically redefined the term religion. This “new concept of religion consisted of man’s voluntary submission to the will of God defined in ethical terms that were binding
beyond any social or territorial boundary . . . . If the center of old paganism
was concern for perpetuating the king’s control over all his enemies, the new
proclaimed that no one but God was, or could be, in control.”
112
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
According to Mendenhall, early Israel was a religious community
based upon the Sinai covenant, and any attempt to discuss the origins
of ancient Israel “must start with, or at least account for, the sudden
appearance of a large community in Palestine and Transjordan only a
generation after the small group escaped from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. At the same time, it must account for the fact that
from the earliest period there is a radical contrast between the religious
ideology of Israel and those of the preceding periods and neighboring
groups.”102
Roughly twenty-five years later (1998), Stager also recognized the
importance of religion for early Israel. In his view, “Israel developed its
self-consciousness in large measure through its religious foundation.”
This was “a breakthrough that led a subset of Canaanite culture” coming
from various backgrounds “to join a supertribe” united under the authority of Yahweh.103 This Yahweh was revealed to Moses and his origins may
be traced to the Midianites. In a sense, Yahwism represented “a radical
break with the past and a breakthrough in the history of religions” as
the sonship of god was transferred from the pharaoh to the people of
Israel who served Yahweh. Thus, it was the constitution of a “people”
under the authority of Yahweh that forged a new relationship between
deity and community and a new identity for those who participated in
this new order.104
I find especially useful and relevant Stager’s comparison between
early Israel as the people (or kindred) of Yahweh and the religious community found in early Islam. Thus, for him “the Israelite ‘am resembles the Islamic ‘umma in that religious allegiance to a single deity . . .
required commitment to the larger ‘family,’ or ‘supertribe.’”105 In Israel
there was kinship based on common descent, as the Israelites understood themselves to be the descendants of Jacob, but commitment to
the ‘am (people) of Yahweh ranked above tribal affiliation. Israel “was
102. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 24-5.
103. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 142. D. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and
Israel, 275-76, also discusses the importance of the contract between Yahweh
and the human community. He also connects early Israel with the Shasu tribes.
104. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 149. Here he follows the philosopher
and social scientist Eric Voegeline. For the connection with the Kenites (a Midianite clan) see also John McLaughlin in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, ed. D.
N. Freedman (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 1402. He thinks that Yahweh
“was brought to Canaan by Moses’ group of escaped slaves, and eventually took
on most of El’s characteristics.” For evidence that Yahweh was known and worshiped in the deserts south of Canaan in the fourteenth century BCE see more
recently Hess, Israelite Religions, 3424-3425, Kindle.
105. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 150-51.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
113
a religious federation with allegiance to a single, sovereign patriarch or
paterfamilias – Yahweh.”106
Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, in a useful discussion about Israel’s ethnicity in Iron I, is aware about the importance of kinship and religion
for a group’s origins (they are both “primordial traits”).107 She believes
that as early as the reign of Saul, Yahweh-El was the national God, and
his worshipers employed “Canaanite” as a “derogatory” appellation for
those who worshiped Baal among them. Because the “Israelites” and
“Canaanites” shared “a common background and material culture, they
would have been indistinguishable archaeologically except in facets of
religion.”108
Unfortunately, Bloch-Smith does not pursue in her work this
“primordial ethnic feature.” And the same can be said about Avraham
Faust. Though he has done an excellent job in debunking the indigenous
Canaanite theory for early Israel, and he recognizes that religion “is
an important factor that can be used to enhance ethnicity,”109 he only
briefly touches on this when he discusses the Israelite temples.110
In a way the reluctance of recent scholars to use religion as a feature for defining and analyzing early Israel is understandable. They may
justly argue that there is not enough archaeological data to inquire into
the religion of early Israel.111 To overcome this shortcoming, one has to
106. Stager, “Forging an Identity,” 151.
107. Bloch-Smith, “Israel Ethnicity in Iron I,” 403.
108. Bloch-Smith, “Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I,” 425.
109. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 94.
110. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93, recognizes that the issue of religion
“deserves a separate discussion.”
111. Note the comment of Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh
and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 25863, Kindle: “[I]t is generally not possible to recover how premonarchic Israel
fashioned its own narrative about its religious identity.” Beth Alpert-Nakhai,
Archaeology and the Religion of Canaan and Israel (Boston: American Schools of
Oriental Research, 2001), 2, is more optimistic as she “seeks to demonstrate
that archaeological data provides a strong and independent witness to the religious practices of Canaanites and Israelites in the second to mid-first millennia
B.C.E.” Gerald A. Klingbeil, “‘Between North and South’: The Archaeology of
Religion in Late Bronze Age Palestine and the Period of Settlement,” in Critical
Issues in Early Israelite History, ed. Richard S. Hess, Gerald A. Klingbeil, and Paul
J. Ray Jr. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008), 142, says that “cult archaeology at this point cannot prove or disprove the existence or nonexistence of the
social entity called Israel,” and he reminds us that “the picture of the religious
realities of LBA Palestine gleaned from the archaeology of the cult is rather
incomplete.” Also the focus is on urban centers, therefore more village and archaeological work must be done for a better understanding of the cult.
114
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
rely on the early biblical texts (e.g., Judg 5) and also work from (presumably) later texts that seem to reflect the earlier situation.112 However, for the rest of this essay, special attention will be paid mainly to
the archaeological data available from the Late Bronze age and Iron I
Canaan. Some archaeological data from Iron II will also be considered,
as it is assumed to reflect the earlier situation in Israel. The hope is that
the shortcomings in this analysis will be overcome by future discoveries
and more extensive examinations of the data.
A good start in the analysis of the religion of early Israel is to compare the Canaanite temples during the Late Bronze Age with those
found in the highlands in the early Iron I. Faust discusses this issue in
his attempt to establish an egalitarian ethos in early Israel. According to
him, even though the Late Bronze Age sites have been excavated only to
a small extent, at least one temple was found at almost every site. This is
in sharp contrast to Iron Age, when some sites have been excavated to a
large extent, and “real temples are practically absent from most sites that
can be labeled as Israelite.”113 Even during the Iron Age II, there seems to
be a lack of public/organized cult in the Israelite sites, and this “stands
in contrast to several villages that, on other grounds, can be identified
as Canaanite-Phoenician and exhibit similarity to Bronze Age Canaanite
villages, where an organized cult is present.”114
Millard takes this argument further when he notices the abandonment of the shrines in the towns of the Late Bronze Age. According
to him, archaeologists “cannot identify a single site in which worship
continued from the LBA well into the Iron Age.”115 Even as one acknowledges that the shift from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age was gradual and it occurred at varying rates in different places, it seems that
“no shrine of the Late Bronze Age was still operating by 1000 BC.”116
112. This is the approach of Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel.
113. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 93-4.
114. Faust, Israel’s Ethnogenesis, 94. See also Hess, Israelite Religions, 516467, Kindle, who observes that “with rare exceptions, there are no shrines or
temples in the village culture of the Iron Age I highlands” in contrast to the
situation in the Late Bronze Age. This suggests to him “a change from the traditional religious worship of the preceding period to a “simple, aniconic, noninstutitionalized cult.”
115. Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites,” 166. As a contrast,
according to Beth-Nakhai, Archaeology and the Religions, 152, nearly all the sanctuaries of the LB IA period continued in use from the MB IIC.
116. Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites,” 166. Beth-Nakhai,
Archaeology and the Religions, 176, notices the continuing fortress sanctuary at
Shechem, but acknowledges that the other cult centers of Iron I (c. 1200-1000
B.C.) tended to be small and simple, often open air or built among other domestic dwellings. Therefore, these sanctuaries contrast to those of the Late Bronze
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
115
In the context in which religious sites are surprisingly tenacious, and a
sacred place may persist even if a new religion arises,117 Millard is correct
to note that the “end to the sanctity of a place surely signals a major
change in the beliefs of the populace.”118 Even with the limited archaeological data available, it is safe to say that the range of sacred places
from the Late Bronze Age ceases during the Iron Age.119 The following
passage from Millard deserves to be quoted in full, as it deals very well
with issues raised by the indigenous Canaanites theory.120
If the Canaanites actually moved from the towns into the hill country villages, would they have abandoned the worship of the divinities to which
they had been attached when they lived in their cities? This seems unlikely. In fact, they might be expected to redouble their devotions as they
faced uncertainties of a new way of life. Furthermore, if the people had
come from more than one town which each town having its own patron
deity, it is hard to suppose that a new faith would have been accepted
almost universally in those villages and at the same time. The cessation
of worship at the Late Bronze Age sites, the absence of clear cultic installations in the hill villages, and the rise of the worship of the God of Israel
may be pointers to the entry into Canaan of large numbers of a new
population, the Israelites.
Should we also take into consideration the “mixed multitude” that
is common in many recent reconstructions of early Israel, the problem
of ‘unity’ becomes even more insolvable. For “if people had come from
more than one town with each town having its own patron deity,” slaves
from Egypt and other nomads had come with their own god(s), the
expected variety of religions is untraceable in the archaeological record
Age. She concludes from this that during the Iron I, “much of the Canaanite
society reverted to its tribal components. In the absence of cities, worship took
place at pilgrimage sites and in small villages.” See Beth-Nakhai, Archaeology and
the Religions, 215. The clan groups that worshiped at these various sacred sites
would later joined together and formed the nation of Israel. Note, however, that
temples were the norm in Canaanite communities during both the Middle and
Late Bronze periods. And there seems to be “an even distribution of temples
between urban and rural sites and across the geographical spectrum.” See Daniel
Warner, The Archaeology of the Canaanite Cult, 227.
117. Warner, The Archaeology of the Canaanite Cult, 228, also notes that
“Canaanite theology had a strong tradition of the sacredness of where a temple
was built. This is demonstrated by the fact that over 50 percent of sites in both
the MB and LB period display continuity, i.e., a temple rebuilt on top of its
predecessor.”
118. Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites,” 167.
119. Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites,” 167.
120. Millard, “Were the Israelites Really Canaanites,” 167.
116
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
and their unity (as it is found in the Merneptah Stela, biblical texts
and the material culture) is impossible to sustain. Isn’t it more likely
that the Yahwistic nucleus came from the outside, was large enough to
absorb smaller groups, and had a faith strong enough to at least initially
maintain Yahwism as the official/national religion of the early group?121
It must be the “common devotion to Yahweh that brings coherence to
this entire system,” as religion has always been a powerful motivator.122
The Bible attests to Yahwism as the key factor in the formation of early
Israel, and there is no viable alternative explanation for why and how
the “mixed multitude” in the highlands had the continuity, distinctiveness, and unity reflected in the archaeological record.
Hess goes further in his analysis of Iron Age I cultic sites in the
highlands and notes the manner in which these settlers minimize objects
related to worship. According to him, “the early Iron Age cult sites are
virtually free of any of the expected objects or architecture that customarily identifies religious centers. There are almost no figurines nor are
there any distinctive altars or temple/ shrine architecture.”123 In contrast, Warner finds twelve figurines from eighteen temples during the
Late Bronze Age, more numerous than during the Middle Bronze Age.124
With very few exceptions, like the fortress sanctuary at Shechem, the
other sanctuaries “tended to be small and simple, often open-air or built
among other domestic dwellings.”125 This is again in contrast with the
Late Bronze Age.
Conclusion
The cumulative archaeological evidence brought forth most recently
by Faust and Hawkins makes it untenable to sustain a theory about
early Israel with its roots in the indigenous Canaanite population. The
strongest evidence for a non-Canaanite Israel comes from the new settlement patterns, foodways, burial practices, and the cult. There is no
121. See the conclusion of Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 156-58.
He sees the tribes of Israel as bound in a unified “nation” by their shared religious ideology. Others could transfer (e.g., Rahab) their ethnic identification
“through the adoption of those ideas – essentially becoming Israelite.” Hawkins
argues that their ethnic boundaries were generated by ideology, an ideology that
allowed for the inclusion of those foreigners who embraced Yahwism.
122. Hawkins, How Israel Became a People, 279-80.
123. Hess, Israelite Religions, 5171-74, Kindle.
124. Warner, The Archaeology of the Canaanite Cult, 241. There were also
more altars found than during the Middle Bronze Age. To my knowledge, there
were no altars found in any Iron Age I site in the highland villages.
125. Hess, Israelite Religions, 5233-35, Kindle.
The Emergence of Israel in Canaan
117
doubt that more works need to be done in all of these areas. However, if
we are to understand and describe ancient Israel in its own terms, and
not as a modern construct, the focus should be on its religion. That is
certainly the most primordial trait that Israel remembers as being different from the Canaanites and it was what united the “mixed multitude”
found on the pages of the Bible. It may be that not much will be found
in this area, but at least scholars will be looking in the right place to
establish Israel’s distinctiveness. Also, for the reconstruction of ancient
Israel more attention should be paid to the possibility that there was
an actual conquest or, at least, that (many) people were actually killed
as the decrease in population suggests.126 One cannot help but notice
that at this stage of research reconstructed Israel looks very much like
a mirror of modern western society: secularized and peaceful (hence
most propose a peaceful infiltration). Unfortunately, the ancient reality
contradicts this view as both religion and warfare were very much part
of everyday life.
126. See more recently the relevant observations of Hawkins, Ancient Israel, 74-75, about pastoral nomads in almost all the sources as being violent and
dangerous. According to literary sources, the reality in the ancient world “was
that almost all interactions between states and nomadic groups were said to be
military in nature.” See also the work of Pitkänen in note 94.
TTJ 16.2 (2013): 118-137
ISSN 1598-7140
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma
in the Urban Economy*
Cephas T. A. Tushima
Jos ECWA Theological Seminary, Nigeria
The Christian church, from its very early days, has always had the
concern for right doctrine (orthodoxy). This was largely the concern of
many of the New Testament epistles, especially the Pauline and Johannine. This concern also accounts for many of the writings of the church
fathers such as Irenaeus. The concern for orthodoxy was responsible for
the rise of many of the early church councils and other such councils
and controversies dating from the fourth century to the present day.
Though a similar interest in right practice (orthopraxis) has also been
evident throughout the history of the church, its accent in scholarly discussions assumed new heights with the writings of liberation theologians
like Gustavo Gutiérrez.1 Since the rise of liberation theology and its
emphasis on orthopraxy, the concept has become common in religious
parlance. In religion, especially Christianity, three elements are very
important; namely, belief, practice, and proclamation. While the first
two of these have received a great attention in the various forms of the
enunciations of orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the third is yet to receive a
coherent and systematic articulation. In this paper, I hope to call attention to the need for the formulation of an ortho-kerygma for our gospel
witness in our globalizing and urbanizing world.
Informing my focus in this paper on the urban economy is the
understanding that our world is becoming increasingly urban and that
the urban landscape is becoming dominant on the rural economy. H.
Lefebvre defines the urban society as “a society that results from a pro* This article is an edited version of a paper, with the same title, that I presented on the occasion of JETS Faculty Lecture Series at Jos ECWA Theological
Seminary (JETS) on November 5–7, 2012. Dr. Tushima serves on the faculty
of Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS), where he is currently the Dean,
Graduate School & Acting Director of the PhD program. He also serves as an
Adjunct Professor at Eastern University, St. Davids, PA, and is a Research Fellow
of University of South Africa (UNISA).
1. The magnum opus of his works is A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics
and Salvation (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1971).
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
119
cess of complete urbanization.” He further specifies, “I used the term
‘urban society’ to refer to the society that results from industrialization,
which is a process of domination that absorbs agricultural production.”2
Lefebvre wrote these words over forty years ago, and their reality is even
truer today than he could have imagined. Thus, our contemporary world
is an urban society in two respects. First, by Lefebvre’s definition, the
domination (and interconnectedness) of urban over (of) rural economies has reached unprecedented heights and the trend is escalating, not
abating. Second, most of the world’s population now lives in cities.3 I
have chosen to use the urban economy as the focus of our study because
of its significance in the intersection of urbanization and globalization
in our postmodern condition.
The City: Ancient and Modern
It is appropriate to commence our discussion with an understanding of the city. Dale T. Irvin posits that, historically, cities emerged as
political centers but, along with that, they also had the important role
of being centers of religion. He writes:
[Cities are where] kings and queens lived and from which they ruled in
the ancient world and round the globe. The city was birthed as the semiotic world of royalty, the ceremonial religious center where temples and
palaces were located, the place where the divine and the human came
together to shape the world.4
The growth and sustenance of cities was propelled by agricultural production surpluses, which freed segments of their populations to engage
in endeavors other than food production. Understandably, this phe2. Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution, trans. Robert Bononno (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2003), 1–2. He further notes, “This
urbanization is virtual today, but will become real in the future,” 1.
3. The 2009 United Nations Statistical Yearbook 54 (p. 47) shows 50.5% of
the world’s population as living in urban areas, with the annual growth rate of
1.9%, while 49.5% live in rural areas with the growth rate of only 0.3%, accessed
September 6, 2011, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/syb/syb54/SYB54_Final.pdf.
4. Dale T. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global: Mission in an
Age of Global Cities,” International Bulletin of Urban Research 33, no. 4 (October
2009): 177. For detailed discussion of the rise of the cities in the ancient world,
Irvin suggests the following sources: Paul Wheatley, The Pivot of the Four Quarters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City
(Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1971); David Carrasco, City of Sacrifice: The Aztec
Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999); Nezar
Alsayyad, Cities and Caliphs: On the Genesis of Arab Muslim Urbanism (New York:
Greenwood Press, 1991); Joel Kotkin, The City: A Global History (New York:
120
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
nomenon was more common along significant river basins. The ancient
cities of the Fertile Crescent are excellent examples of this. Production
diversification created the need for distribution. Traders and merchants,
therefore, became catalysts to city growth. They made possible the
movement of goods from one place to another, so that peoples’ desires
were no longer limited by what was produced locally, but distributive
trade brought within close reach products from remote regions. As cities
assumed their new role of being the centers of commerce, which through
trade linked far-flung regions, “[e]ventually the merchants assumed control, giving rise to the commercial city, which became the engine of the
global network called modern capitalism.”5
Concomitant with the changing nature of the city’s economy was
the change in demographics. No longer did the city consist of farmers who journeyed daily to the countryside to work the fields. It was
now comprised of an army of non-agricultural producers (artisans of all
kinds), administrators, soldiers, priests, merchants, transporters (caravan drivers and porters), and other service providers. The city inhabitants were also not solely from the local populations but also included
people of different nationalities or locations. Irvin observes:
[Cities] have always attracted immigrants from their surrounding countryside, but also they drew merchants who came from other cities and
regions. The merchants from afar contributed much to making the urban
a multicultural reality.6
Therefore, while multiculturalism as a feature of urban landscape has
assumed new dimensions nowadays, it is not a novelty of our times.
Another important element of urban demography is that of class.
The working classes have always dominated the populations of cities.
In ancient times, the most dominant economic group often consisted of
slaves.7 So dominant was the role of slaves in ancient societies such as
Modern Library, 2005).
5. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,” 178.
6. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,” 178.
7. In one estimate the population of Athens in classical period, for example, is thought to have consisted of 40, 000 men (together with their families
making up 140,000), the metics (resident-aliens) 70,000, and between 155,000
and 400,000 slaves, D. P. M. Weerakkody, “Demography,” in Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece, ed. Nigel Wilson (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006), 213–15.
Though Weerakkody questions the veracity of these figures, they seem to be collaborated by the figures Athenaeus (vi.20) said were recorded from the census
conducted by Demetrius Phalereus, in which the population of Athens consists
of 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics (resident-aliens), and 400,000 slaves, accessed
September 6, 2011, http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/S/SLA/slavery-03.html.
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
121
Greece and Rome that they were sometimes referred to as “slave societies” or “slave economies.”8 During much of the Middle Ages, the oppressive relationships of master and slave were taken over by feudal lords
and peasants, but slavery was reintroduced toward the end of that era.
And just as in ancient times, the slave population not infrequently outgrew that of freemen in most slave holding colonies of the new world.
As the abolitionist movements recorded successes, the growing number
of freed slaves poured into city centers, introducing or aggravating the
urban poverty situations. Indeed, beginning with the industrial age of
Western civilization onward into the twentieth century, the inner cities
of western urban societies were inundated with hordes of poor, white,
blue-collar workers, and recently freed slaves. This was the beginning of
the rise of slums and their associated social problems.
Industrialization brought with it an increased capacity for both production and the diversity of the goods produced. This initially offered
greater job opportunities both within the industries themselves and, subsequently, through the chain of distributive trade. It also afforded better
means of communication and transportation. This in turn enhanced
mobility of labor as the industrial urban society attracted people from
different parts of the world. The consequence of all this was the further
differentiation of urban demographics in every regard. Irvin comments:
The processes of class and cultural differentiation that historically
marked the urban have accelerated in the globalizing city, intensifying
the polymorphous while expanding the distance between rich and poor
to astronomical proportions.9
As the city dominates, rules, and determines the fate of rural areas, so do
its fortunes affect those of the latter. These changing demographics of
urban areas (ethno-cultural diversity and exacerbating disparity between
the rich and poor) are also becoming a common feature of rural areas.
The dominant feature of the post-industrial era in which we live is
the worldwide web, the information “super highway” of the cyber space.
The web has radically reduced our world to the so-called “global village.”
The interconnectivity of our world is vividly represented in the ability
Indeed, Weerakkody, also shows that Greek population was small at the beginning of the first millennium BC, blossomed and reached its zenith by the
middle of the millennium, and declined subsequently, especially beginning with
the Peloponnesian War (circa. 415–413 BC), “Demography,” 215.
8. For a different view on this, see Ellen Meiksins Wood, “Landlords and
Peasants, Masters and Slaves: Class Relations in Greek and Roman Antiquity,”
Historical Materialism 10, no. 3 (2002): 17–70.
9. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,” 179.
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to beam images electronically around the world in an instant of real
time. Transnational migrations or networks, typified by multinational
corporations and international public service (the UN, its agencies, and
international NGOs) and their ability to connect and move people globally, thereby creating new type of “nomads” with new types of identity
or non-identity (or, at the least, hyphenated identities) accentuate the
multifaceted pluralistic character of the emerging urban society.10 This
urban society is emerging and fast becoming the norm globally. Alan J.
Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk acknowledge this trend:
The contexts in which congregations live are changing. There are fewer
and fewer communities with a wholly similar ethnic or racial background.
Globalization creates a pluralist culture in which people next door are
from around the world.11
In view of this changing context of the urban space, we have to begin to
conceive of formulating an appropriate and effective way of articulating
our Christian witness to it (i.e., formulating the outlines of an orthokerygma).
The Bible and the City
The city is a common feature of biblical literature. It appears early
in the account of human origins (Gen 4:17). Accompanying the mention of the rise of the city in the biblical narrative is a hint at the industrial diversity (Gen 4:20–22). There are over 850 references to the city
in the entire Bible. Prominent among these is the city that humanity set
out to build at Babel on premises that are counter to the divine mandate
regarding human settlement (Gen 11:4), both in the pre-lapsarian (Gen
1:28) and in the post-lapsarian eras (Gen 9:1, 7).
Many features of the city mentioned in the Bible are still with us
today. We have already mentioned industrial diversity. The city as a
place of conglomeration of peoples is a place where vice and violence
10. This is the phenomenon that Karin Sotnik addressed in her essay on
NPR’s “This I Believe” Series, in which she raised and illustrated the changed
character of identity. She states, “I am . . . ‘Russian-speaking Latvian Jew’”; “Or
take my good friend Ligia - a Romanian-born Israeli French transplant to Philadelphia and prominent architect, turned professor, turned therapist, turned published novelist”; and “My pre-teen children, if asked the same sort of question,
will cheerfully tell you that they are Russian-American-Christian Jews. They
don’t see anything strange about it, and neither do many of their classmates,”
accessed September 6, 2011, http://www.whyy.org/91FM/tib_sotnik.html.
11. The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006), 173.
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are rife (cf. Gen 18, 19; 34:1–28; 1 Kgs 21:1–13). Other characteristics
mentioned include: commerce—with its trade negotiations (Gen 23:1–
18); diplomacy (Gen 26:26–33); religious or cult centers (Gen 28:19;
1 Sam 9:6–13; 10:5; 2 Sam 6:12); transportation and communication
hubs (Gen 33:18; John 4:1–8); administrative capitals and the administration of justice (Gen 36:32–39; Deut 22:15–22; Josh 20:1–6); absorption of surplus from the countryside (Gen 41:48); war theater (Judg
1:8, 17–25; 20:11–48; 2 Sam 20:15–22); subversion of the state (2 Sam
15:1–10); new cities (1 Kgs 16:23–24); public works and utilities (2 Kgs
20:20; 2 Chron 32:4–5); religious revivals and missionary outreaches (2
Chron 30:1–14; Ps 55:10–12; Is 1:21–23; Jer 6:7–8); ethnic diversity
and tensions (Neh 2:19; 4:7; 13:28); religious pluralism (1 Kgs 11:1–8;
2 Chron 33:1–8; Ezra 8:1–16); and the place of suffering, oppression,
and injustice (Job 24:1–12; Amos 4:1; 6:1–6). Additionally, the contemporary phenomenon of globalized cities as centers of global commerce is
also found among the cities in the Bible (cf. Ezra 27:2–25).
At core, there is nothing new about the city that cannot be seen
from the ancient or biblical cities. Douglas Rutt set Syrian Antioch as
a paradigm of a center for urban mission. He observes that by the time
of the apostolic church, Antioch already was the hub of east-west commerce in the Roman Empire. As the node in the nexus of the trade
between the Mediterranean world and the Far East, it was “responsible
for the shipping of goods from Arabia, China, India, Babylonia and
Persia to Rome.”12 Being a place that received so much traffic of persons and goods, Antioch was characterized by ethnic diversity from its
foundation and soon adopted pluralism as the bedrock of its city culture thereby becoming the converging point of occidental and oriental
cultures. These characteristics made it truly the first “postmodern” city.
Besides the multitudes of merchants, soldiers, and others whom business brought from all over the known world at that time, its permanent
residents consisted of native Syrians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Jews.
By the time of Christ, Antioch had accommodated Hellenistic religion
and philosophy to its local religions and cults such that the city became
“filled with orientalized Greeks and Hellenized Orientals of all classes
and all degrees of education.”13 Thus, as a pluralistic and open society
receptive to new ideas, Antioch was more suited than any other city to
become the center for world missions of the primitive church. This possibility only became a reality with the arrival of the Apostle Paul whose
pedigree was in the mold of Antioch, with the converce of the horizons of
12. Douglas Rutt, “Antioch as Paradigmatic of the Urban Center of Mission,” Missio Apostolica 11, no. 1 (May 2003): 34–35.
13. Rutt, “Antioch as Paradigmatic of the Urban Center of Mission,” 36.
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his Roman citizenship and his very Jewish/Pharisaic upbringing. He well
understood and cleverly exploited the ethos and pathos of such a society
for the ends of the gospel (1 Cor 9:19–22).
Models of the Christian Kerygma
The Christian proclamation of the kingdom of God has been as
varied as the body of Christ has been over the millennia. I will highlight only the central models. They include logocentric,14 philanthropic,
liturgical, charitable logomorphic,15 and presence proclamation models.
Logocentric proclamation lays a heavy stress on the power of the spoken
word. This kerygmatic model is often associated with orthodox purity or
conservatism and evangelistic zeal. The initial witness of the leadership
of the primitive church manifests a preference for this model. This is evident from the sermons of the Apostles Peter and Paul (cf. Acts 2:14–41;
3:12–4:4; Acts 13:13–43; 28:16–24). They were preceded by John the
baptizer and Jesus the Christ (cf. Matt 3:1–12; 4:17; 5–7; 10:7), though
Jesus had made use of other approaches as well. These fountainheads of
Christian logocentrism took their cue from the Old Testament prophets.
Indeed, with a skewed comprehension of Jesus’ missional mandate
to the church, there has been a tendency to understand it in almost
exclusively logocentric categories. In modern times, this stance was taken
more as a reaction to the social gospel (philanthropic proclamation, discussed below) of the modernist (liberal) church than as a reclaiming act
of the authentic Christian kerygma. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century and at the dawn of the twentieth century, many Christians had
embraced wholesale modernism and its presuppositions and as such had
espoused the social gospel, almost to the exclusion of a propositional
verbal witness to the gospel. The evangelical church reacted to this with
extreme negativity to all social activity. J. Carl Laney writes:
There was a widespread fear that participation in works of social improvement would lead to neglecting more traditional evangelistic activities. Some Christians, in effect, minimized the importance of social con-
14. This refers to the kind of proclamation that is primarily (almost
exclusively) word-based.
15. This refers to proclamation in word-form; the emphasis in this case
is on the form. The difference between logocentrism and logomorphism is that
the former has the “word” as its primary if not only strategy, while in the latter
“word” form witness is one of the strategies.
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cerns and shared no interest in improving the conditions of suffering
humanity.16
Thus, to maintain orthodox purity over against the liberal church’s minimalist approach that had reduced the gospel to a mere philanthropic
and political activism, the evangelical church withdrew from all social
actions. This is what Carl F. Henry has aptly called “the great reversal.”17
Logocentrism in the church’s witness held sway through much of
the twentieth century and was epitomized in the ministries of evangelists like T. L. Osborne, Oral Roberts, Louis Palau, and Billy Graham.
It is hypocritical to seek to address the matters of people’s ultimate
destiny but fail to speak to the concerns of their temporal existence,
knowing well human life cannot be bifurcated into purely spiritual and
temporal. Indeed, the temporal impinges on the eternal. Even in spiritual things, the choices made in temporal existence determine one’s ultimate destiny. Hence, the two ought to be addressed pari passu. Jesus, as
our supreme example, met the felt needs of the people he ministered to
as well as their perceived needs (Matt 9:2–7; 15:29–37; John 8:1–11). 18
The kerygmatic model is what I call philanthropic proclamation.
With the posthumous publication in 1778 of H. S. Reimarus’s Wolfenbüttel Fragments19 modernist historicism was on the march in biblical
interpretation. The trail Reimarus blazed was followed by others like H.
E. Paulus (1761–1851), F. C. Baur (1792–1860), D. F. Strauss (1808–
74), and A. B. Ritschl (1822–89), among others. Their modernist interpretive approaches to the New Testament texts presupposed our world
to be a closed universe, and they discountenanced the metaphysical or
spiritual and the supernatural. Thus, the value that Jesus (and the New
Testament) held for them ultimately, as summed up by Ritschl, was ethical. Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930) brought this ethical conception of
Christianity to its logical end, as he set forth the value of Jesus and his
teaching as lying in the universal fatherhood of God, the inestimable
value of the human person, and the ultimacy of the commandment of
16. J. Carl Laney, “The Prophet and Social Concern,” Bibliotheca Sacra
147, no. 585 (Jan–March 1990): 32.
17. Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, rev.
ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004). See also Perry C. Cotham, “Introduction:
The Ethics of Escapism Versus the Ethics of involvement,” in Christian Social
Ethics, ed. Perry C. Cotham (Grand Rapids: Baker House, 1979), 11.
18. For further discussion of these themes, see Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, and Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in the Age of
Hunger (New York: Paulist, 1977).
19. Discounting the supernatural, he portrayed Jesus as a messianic pretender and charged his disciples with inventing Christianity.
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love. Towards the end of the nineteenth and into the early twentieth
century, these moves in the academy eventually filtered into the church.
Mainline churches were in large part persuaded, and their gospel witness whittled down to mostly socio-political action for the poor and
philanthropy. This is what Henry called the “great betrayal.” Important
as were the works of political actions for the oppressed and social activity for the poor, liberalism was inadequate since it addressed the earthly
needs without attending to the issues of eternal destiny (this they ought
to have done without neglecting the other, cf. Matt 23:23).
Liturgical proclamation describes the witness of churches like the
Eastern Orthodox churches. In their case, the church’s rich liturgy
becomes the point of contact with the community. In this model, festivals (such as the rich traditions of Christmas, Easter, and the like);
rituals such as several occasions of prayers through the day; mass; and
ceremonies at critical points like baptism, birth, weddings, and death
served as the most potent witness for the faith communities. This model
tends to for those whose pedigree is rooted in the church, where the
church is more of a cultural institution than a vital missional body. It is
only of late that evangelical elites, particularly in the US, disenchanted
with the consumerist and commercial orientation of the independent
evangelical moment, have on their own began to seek out and drift to
the Orthodox churches.
Charitable logomorphism20 derives from the evangelical church’s
response to extreme logocentrism. In this case, social needs are addressed
not necessarily out of concern for the plight of the people in the condition, but primarily as a means of discharging one’s obligation to bear
witness to Christ. In other words, the social action is merely a bait to
draw the needy in and to make them hear the logomorphic gospel.21
This kerygmatic form explains, to some degree, why there was a rise, in
mid-twentieth century, within the evangelical community, of establishing urban shelters for the homeless, soup kitchens, and the distribution
of clothes and other consumables to the poor. The problem with this is
that it addresses the symptoms of the conditions of the poor, often in a
patronizing manner, without addressing the root causes of their predicament.
Last but not the least is presence kerygma. In our postmodern
condition, especially in the Western world, there has been a new trend
20. I used this word with the meaning of a dominant word-form or wordbased proclamation.
21. For a detailed discussion of similar concepts, see David O. Moberg,
Inasmuch: Christian Social Responsibility in Twentieth Century America (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), and his The Great Reversal: Evangelism Versus Social
Concern (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972), 41.
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of suburban/urban population drift as a form of witness bearing. This
development is a feature of the emerging church movement. Some in
the emerging community are persuaded of the need to be present with
those to whom they seek to minister. Thus, adherents of the presence
kerygma sell their home in the suburb and move to buy homes within
the inner city. An example of this is the Southside Community Church
of Vancouver, of which Roxburgh and Romanuk write, “Southside has
deliberately shaped its life around living in and being part of each neighborhood in which a congregation is involved.”22 In other cases, families
of similar persuasion have even gone to the extent of banding together
to form commune-like communities in the inner city in order to be literally the “living witnesses.”23 They are commune-like because they are
not in the typical fashion of communes; say, of the kinds established in
the 1970s and 1980s by the Jesus People Movement. Rather, they prefer
to call their communities cohousing.24 Others choose not to relocate
themselves but to bring their presence to bear on the urban community
through community development efforts.
This kerygmatic form has some similarities with both the philanthropic kerygma and charitable logomorphism. The major difference is
that the model of presence kerygma has a greater depth of commitment
to those being ministered and exerts greater demands on those using the
method. However, there is an uneasy tendency for the approach to be
anthropocentric25 rather than Christotelic.26 There is less emphasis on
22. The Missional Leader, 165; see their chapters 9 & 10 on this feature of
the church.
23. Southside does not form communes, but groups of families move to
urban centers in order to live among their poor new neighbors and bear witness
by engaging and transforming the communities, Roxburgh and Romanuk, The
Missional Leader, 171–72.
24. In discussing the example of The Temescal Cohousing Project in Oakland, California, Tom Sine describes cohousing, “The Temescal Cohousing Project looks very different from the suburban communities that several of its new
residents used to call home. Clusters of buildings are set on a quarter acre in
one of Oakland’s older neighborhoods. In the center is a large common green
where kids can play and families gather. Next to the green is an old barn that the
teens in the community have already made into their own space. On the other
side of the green is a common dining room where the members share meals together twice a week.... These young urban pilgrims believe that being the church
should mean more than showing up at a building once a week. For them, church
means a living faith community within a neighborhood” (“Not Your Father’s
Commune,” http://www.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/2000/08/Not-Your-FathersCommune.aspx#ixzz1lSwqsVFD).
25. Humanity and its needs constitute the focus of the group.
26. This refers to having Christ as the goal of every action.
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positive cognitive propositional teaching (such as doctrine or even exposition of Scripture).27 The diction of such groups, more often than not, is
saturated with a sense of indeterminacy and is reflected in their frequent
talks about personal journeys or narratives.28 Others would refrain from
27. In this mold of de-emphasizing doctrinal teaching, C. Peter Wagner, in
talking about the curriculum of his Wagner Leadership Institute, even gleefully
writes, “I have never offered a course in systematic theology simply because
there would be virtually no demand for it among our in-service, apostolically
oriented student body. This, I well know, would strike the traditional theological
education establishment as unthinkable. . . . In Old wineskin schools, systematic
theology is not optional; it is required for graduation” (Changing Church [Ventura, CA.: Regal Books, 2004], 145). This postmodernist approach (wherein there
is no room for absolutes, and all forms of authority are perceived as structures of
oppression) reckons with market forces (what the people want to know; cf. 2 Tm
4:1–4) rather than biblical didaskalia (what they ought to know).
28. Spencer Burke describes his own resignation from Mariners Church
as pastor in Irvine California and subsequent endeavors in the emerging movement: “By choosing to live out the questions in my heart, I’m able to dialogue with
people in a way I never have before. I no longer consider myself a tour guide. I’m a fellow traveler and, as Robert Frost said, ‘That has made all the difference’” (emphasis mine). See Mike Yaconelli, ed., Stories of Emergence: Moving from Absolute to Authentic
(El Cajon, CA: Emergent YS, 2003), 36, cited in D. A. Carson’s Becoming Conversant
with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 19. A similar emphasis on journey and story tellingly comprises Todd Hunter’s testimony reported in the same book, for a summary of which, see Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, 22–24.
Scott McKinght, writing as a postmodern emerging scholar explains: “The
emerging movement tends to be suspicious of systematic theology. Why? Not
because we don’t read systematics, but because . . . God didn’t reveal a systematic theology but a storied narrative, and no language is capable of capturing the
Absolute Truth who alone is God. We believe the Great Tradition offers various
ways for telling the truth about God’s redemption in Christ, but we don’t believe any one theology gets it absolutely right. Hence, a trademark feature of the
emerging movement is that we believe all theology will remain a conversation
about the Truth who is God in Christ through the Spirit, and about God’s story
of redemption at work in the church. No systematic theology can be final. In
this sense, the emerging movement is radically Reformed. It turns its chastened
epistemology against itself, saying, ‘This is what I believe, but I could be wrong.
What do you think? Let’s talk’.” See “Five Streams of the Emerging Church:
Key Elements of the Most Controversial and Misunderstood Movement in the
Church Today,” Christianity Today, February 1, 2007, accessed November 20,
2011, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html?start=5.
It is interesting that while the “emergents” make such a fuss about the
incapability of human language to speak Truth absolutely, their denigration of
old school or old wineskin evangelicalism vis-à-vis their projection of their own
positions smacks of nothing but absolutism.
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even overtly making any logomorphic gospel presentation, viewing it as
either intruding into the mental space of others or an arrogant imposition of one’s views on others.29 The negative side effects include the
creation of the non-threatening big tent rainbow communities wherein
everyone is welcomed and the offense of the cross is removed. Put differently, people get involved with the church but are grossly lacking in
biblical and doctrinal literacy and commitment.30 Besides, it appears to
be more suited to compact high-density inner city poverty-ridden neighborhoods. It is yet to be seen how it will work in low-density affluent
suburban areas.
Contours of an Orthokerygma
The overview of the various approaches to gospel proclamation
above indicates that each of these has taken an aspect, albeit a valid one,
of the whole to the neglect of other vital elements. What is needed is an
integrative and comprehensive approach that threads all the vital components into a holistic network of gospel proclamation strategies. Such
components should include the message to be proclaimed, the media of
communication, the manner of delivery, and the goal of proclamation,
the discussion of each of which follows below.
29. Admitting this as a flaw of the emergent movement, McKinght writes:
“This emerging ambivalence about who is in and who is out creates a serious
problem for evangelism. The emerging movement is not known for it, but I wish
it were. Unless you proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, there is no good
news at all—and if there is no Good News, then there is no Christianity, emerging or evangelical.” See “Five Streams of the Emerging Church.” McKnight
rightly attributes the root cause of the movement’s lethargy toward logomorphic
proclamation to the movement’s avowed inclusivism. However, this is only part
of the story. In my view, it ultimately relates to the question of attitudes toward
absolute truth and authority. If the Bible is final authority in all matters of
doctrine and praxis, then, there would be no place for inclusivism because the
biblical gospel is unabashedly exclusivist (cf. Mark 16:15–16; Luke 10:22; John
3:35–36; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor 3:11; 1 John 5:11–12).
30. Though commenting on an unconnected matter, a statement made by
Roxburgh and Romanuk evinces of this pattern. They write, “[C]ongregations
are increasingly composed of people with little sense of the Christian story,”
The Missional Leader, 158. Indeed, McKnight observes that strands of the postmodernist emerging church consider metanarratives, even the Christian one,
irrelevant. … Still others take postmodernity’s crushing of metanarratives and
extend that to master theological narratives—like Christianity. They say what really matters is orthopraxy and that it doesn’t matter which religion one belongs
to, as long as one loves God and one’s neighbor as one’s self,” “Five Streams of
the Emerging Church.”
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The Message to be Proclaimed
The core of the whole idea of proclamation is the concept of communication. Affirming oneself as a communicator presupposes a message (content) that one wishes to transmit. For the gospel proclaimer,
the content (message) is the good news of the vicarious salvific work of
Jesus of Nazareth in his life, death, and resurrection, within the redemptive historical context of the Christian Bible. Gospel proclaimers in the
new world of the postmodern mindset, with its aversion to absolutes
and incredulity to metanarratives, must remain committed to the absolutes of biblical truths and its metanarrative of redemptive history. It
is only out of this commitment that true proclamation of the gospel
will emerge. Otherwise, one will be proclaiming something not of Jesus
Christ, which will be no gospel at all (Gal 1:6–9; cf. Deut 4:2; Prov 30:6;
and Rev 22:18–19).
Cognizant of the centrality of the biblical text even in a pluralistic
world, Irvin writes:
[The Bible functions] to play a critical connective role in our experiences
of world Christianity in cities throughout the world. It is a common book,
even when read from different locations, perspectives, commitments, and
confessions and in different contexts and languages. It is a meeting place
of sorts, a movable site to which is ascribed authority and from which is
derived meaning.31
George Todd, on the same note, points to the Bible as the place to find
God’s intentions for his people—the intentions which were unfolded in
his relationships with Israel, in the Law and the covenant, and ultimately
in Jesus. It is in the Bible that we are to find the impossible possibilities
and the eschatological promise of what we are to become, which provide
for us the promises of power and possibilities of love as well as the premises and impetus to act for the good of contemporary urban populations.
Indeed, for Todd, “The Bible and the experience of the Christian community give to the church the aims, goals, norms and values with which
to judge the metropolis, and to inspire it with visions of what God wants
the city to be.”32 Thus, the biblical text has to inform the content of the
31. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,”180. While I affirm
Irvin’s sentiments concerning the centrality of the biblical text even in a
pluralistic world, notwithstanding our perspectives, I differ with regard to our
conception of biblical authority. While he writes of authority being ascribed to
the Bible, I hold that authority is derived, in the Christian Kerygma, from the
Bible.
32. George Todd, “Mission and Justice: The Experience of Urban and Industrial Mission,” International Review of Mission 65, no. 259 (July 1976): 257.
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
131
kerygma of the church, as the community of the Spirit of God, even in
the twenty-first century. Twenty-first century Christians, like Christians
in any other age of the church, cannot afford to have any other attitude
to Scripture if they are to remain loyal to God and true to biblical faith. I
here fully subscribe to James W. Scott’s description of what the Bible is:
The pertinent didactic pass ages of Scripture, as correctly understood by
orthodox Reformed theology, teach that the Bible is the word of God,
written in the words of men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Inspiration involved the direct work of the Spirit in the mind of the writer,
so guiding his thoughts that what he wrote expressed the communication
of God to his people. Hence, God is the primary author of Scripture.33
If the Bible is understood as God’s communication to humanity, then,
all attempts to live in consonance with the divine will must be guided by
this source of divine communication given to us. Thus, the centrality of
the Bible in the church’s kerygma cannot be compromised.
The Media of Communication
The pluralism of our world requires a multifaceted approach to
gospel proclamation. As God’s people, we can no longer cling smugly to
our preferred approach of witnessing to the exclusion of others. The aim
of the Apostle Paul remains as valid in the witness of the church today as
it was two millennia ago, namely, didaskonte panta anqrwpon en pash sofia
(“teaching everyone with all wisdom” Col 1:28). Every medium, therefore, has to be employed to bear witness to Christ’s saving grace. Only
broad outlines are sketched out here as patterns of what media could be
utilized today in witness bearing.
First and foremost is presence. There is the need, now more than
ever before, for the church to make its presence palpable to the world.
Presence here is used in its widest sense, and includes the world-affirming aspects of presence, in which believers actively participate in the
market or public square with the understanding of vocation as calling.
They would, thus, pursue professional excellence with integrity as a way
of creating testimony to the redeeming grace that flows from Calvary.
Todd, in this regard, observes,
It is the mission of the church to affirm God’s presence in all realms of
life, to seek to discern his action there, and to seek obedience to his will
through the action of Christians in the world. It is the mission of the
33. “The Inspiration and Interpretation of God’s Word, with Special Reference to Peter Enns, Part I: Inspiration and Its Implications,” WTJ 71, no. 1
(Spring 2009): 181.
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Church to bring each person to an awareness of God’s call to obedience
in the use of skills and the exercise of responsibility in whatever place
each may be set. The work situation is the arena for Christian obedience.34
This understanding of the world and the opportunities it offers, therefore, help people to look at the work place not simply as the avenue for
placing food on the table but as a mission field.
Presence includes not just the workplace, but also the home and
the context of its location. The lifestyle of Christians as shown in their
neighborhoods, whether as individuals or families, bears witness one
way or another to their beliefs. This is the realm in which the work of
church groups like Southside eloquently demonstrates what has been
lost in the church’s witness in modern times. Christians are being summoned by such examples to come out of their cocoons and return to
their calling to participate redemptively in the life of their communities,
and to show themselves to be lights and salt in their locales through such
engagements with their communities (Matt 5:13–16).
Secondly, engagement with local communities ineluctably implies
cross bearing and/or being a prophetic voice in the struggle against the
oppressive societal structures. This often means standing with the poor,
deprived people and working to address the surface manifestations of
their plight through charity and philanthropy. It also means addressing
their root causes for social justice and establishing economic empowerment. There are three crucial elements. The first has to do with charitable work that addresses the immediate or felt needs of the people, such
as providing them with food, clothing, medical care, water, recreational
avenues and the like. The second has to do with attacking the systemic
structures of exploitation and oppression. This entails seeking justice for
the poor, exploited, and oppressed, which may mean seeking the judicial
or legislative overturning of the laws, customs, traditions, or such other
structures that hold them in perpetual servitude and squalor. The third
involves working for the empowerment of the poor so that they can
stand on their own and reclaim their human dignity within their communities. This could mean providing them with relevant information,
giving them access to means of production, and providing an enabling
environment to thrive by means of free enterprise and income enumeration.
The third major medium of proclamation is logomorphic proclamation. The witness borne by the church in all the forms of presence
must eventuate into a logomorphic witness to the good news of what
34. Todd, “Mission and Justice,” 256.
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
133
Christ has accomplished for the depraved and doomed humanity. People
need to be brought to the awareness of their fallenness and the predicament that the fallen state engenders vis-à-vis the work of Christ
on their behalf. In view of the eternal ramifications of the responses to
the divine provision for human redemption, it is just, right, and proper
for people to be afforded with the opportunity to make their responses
with the knowledge of the truth. Logomorphic proclamation itself is
multifarious, and has to be explored in its diversity. These include, but
not limited to, the traditional logomorphic kerygmatic approaches such
as one-on-one evangelism (in all its forms), neighborhood outreaches,
televangelism, cyber chat rooms and evangelistic websites, and citywide
open-air campaigns.
The circle of the media of proclamation is to be completed with the
presence of a living, worshipping community and its liturgy, where the
Almighty God is worshipped, his presence amongst his people with the
manifestation of divine charismata is celebrated, and his word declared
and expounded for the edification of the body. Such a community by
its embodiment is where love triumphs and will inspire its members
towards effective presence in the community through holding out the
light of the gospel for society.
The Manner of Delivery
As already pointed out above, urbanization and globalization have
made pluralism a given in our contemporary world. As most of the population of the world now lives in urban areas, coupled with the dominance of urban over rural areas and the interrelationships of the two, it
is becoming increasingly difficult to find places that are entirely monolithic (whether by religion, ethnicity, nationality, or occupation). More
than ever, therefore, our present condition makes imperative the adoption of dialogue in our gospel witness. Our gospel witness has to adopt
the manner of approach that I call the “dynamic dialogical engagement.”
The central element of the dynamic dialogical engagement is dialogue. However, this dialogue is dynamic because, in the first place, it
has more than one dialogue partner; and secondly because it is not onedimensional. It begins with dialogue within; that is, dialogue with the
communities of faith. The starting point for this is dialogue with the
biblical authors and their documents. For there to be a faithful proclamation of the gospel, there must first of all be a faithful understanding
of what the biblical text says. This is a hermeneutical problem. The hermeneutical corollary of our postmodern condition with its implicit pluralism is multiplicity of perspectives of textual reading with the accent
falling more (if not exclusively) on the role of the reader. Irvin calls atten-
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
tion to the fact that in “such multiperspectival readings of the Bible the
temptation lurks to ascribe to the text a degree of translocationality that
might give it the appearance of floating free from any particular context
and location, including that of the original world of its production.”35
Such textual translocationality inevitably results in the fracture or severance of the text from the historical milieu of its provenance­­—the ground
and realm from which its meaning arises. This is why Irvin insists that
the hermeneutics of social location must continue to play an important
role in issues pertaining to biblical knowledge because “such a hermeneutics helps reground biblical readings in various Christian contexts
and experiences.”36 That is to say, it is only as the biblical text is properly grounded in the social location of its provenance that it can be regrounded in the social location of the readers. Put differently, it is only
as we ascertain what the biblical text meant to its original audience that
we can establish what it means for us today.
This dialogue also includes engagement with the church’s understanding of the biblical text. There are three vintage points of the
church’s reading of the Bible that have to be reckoned with. These are
longitudinal perspective (the interpretation of the text through the long
history of the church), cross-sectional perspective (the variety of textual
interpretations of the different Christian traditions of the contemporary
time), and idio-communal perspective (engagement with one’s present
faith community). Underlining all of the different forms of dialogue is
one’s own dialogue with the Spirit of God in prayer.
A third component of this dialogical engagement is the dialogue
with the world.37 This entails listening to the world so as to be in the position to answer the questions it is asking, instead of proffering answers
to questions no one is asking. It also entails listening to the cultures and
religions of the world in order to know their perspectives, worldviews,
and presuppositions, so as to be able to address them at their core, dealing with their fundamental assumptions and perceptions of reality. In
dialoguing with culture, one is engaging more than one culture. It first
begins with dialoguing with the culture in which one was raised or the
culture in which one is at home, i.e., the non-biblical culture that provides persons with their primary frame of reference for understanding
and relating to the world. This helps them to be hermeneutically selfconscious, thereby helping them to minimize their prejudice and ethno35. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,” 180.
36. Irvin, “The Church, the Urban, and the Global,” 180.
37. What I have called dialoguing with the world, John R. W. Stott calls
double listening. For more elaborate description of this, see his The Contemporary
Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World (Downers Grove: IVP, 1992).
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
135
centrism. Secondly, one engages the culture in which one ministers in
order to understand its ethos and pathos. In this way, the right platform
will be provided for the generation of transformational engagement of
the eternal truth of Scripture with the falsity of human episteme as well
as the predicament of the human existence.
The Goal of Proclamation
Proclamation is a form of communication. The three important
function of communication are information, entertainment, and persuasion. Historically, ancient rhetoric and the homiletical discourse of the
church that derive from it have always had persuasion as the goal of
communication. The electronic mass media has ratcheted to the forefront the entertainment function of communication. In our postmodern condition, we are constantly being counseled not to seek to impose
our perspectives on others, and attempts at persuasion are construed as
imposition. Thus, in the postmodern world, information is projected as
the primary goal of communication. As we seek to sketch the contours
of an ortho-kerygma, we necessarily have to address this all-important
issue of communicative goal in gospel witness.
A sharply dichotomist perspective on this matter fails to do justice
for all three are present in any communication. The issue then becomes
one of accent. The distrust of the persuasive goal in gospel presentation is attributable, howbeit, justifiable on some account, to the coercive
methods of past generations of religious proselytizers. Nevertheless, the
church can ill afford to dispense with the goal, hence the need to revisit
this issue.
Ancient rhetoricians (e.g., Aristotle) emphasized persuasion (speaking), while modern rhetoricians (e.g., Kenneth Burke and I. A. Richards)
emphasize understanding (listening).38 For Richards, the most significant hindrance to communication is misunderstanding, and a communicator’s goal should be the elimination of factors that breed misunderstanding. Educated listening, therefore, within the framework of his
“Context Theorem,” is to be far more preferred than forceful speaking.39
Kenneth Burke, on the other hand, is an avid believer in the persuasive
end of communication. For him, our world is rhetorical, because speaking presupposes meaning creation, and meaning is oriented towards a
direction, and therein lies persuasion.40 Nevertheless, the concept of
38. David J. Hesselgrave, “Gold from Egypt: the contribution of rhetoric
to cross-cultural communication,” Missiology 4, no. 1 (Jan 1976): 95–96.
39. For a fuller understanding of this theorem, see I. A. Richards, A
Philosophy of Rhetoric (New York: Oxford University Press, 1936).
40. Cf. Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives and A Rhetoric of Motives
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
“identification,” instead of “persuasion” itself takes priority in Burke’s
rhetorical theory. He views the major problem of humanity as division,
and human effort at communication evinces of the human search for
unification. Burke, as such, posits identification as the means for achieving such unification.41 Identification, in my view, however, cannot be
pursued as an end in itself. It has to be seen only as a tool for effective communication—a way of authentically creating rapport and connection with one’s interlocutors. Put differently, identifying with one’s
dialogue partners leads to gaining their confidence . This would in turn
serve as a stepping-stone for persuasive dialogue.
What gives people the sense of imperative and impulse for gospel
proclamation is the grasp of the eternal dimensions of human destinies.
Such knowledge, propelled by love would not be content to allow hapless souls to wander aimlessly in the endless journey of the postmodern
quest for uncertain truth. Rather, it will lead one to challenge lovingly
the consciences of depraved humanity with the sure truth of God’s
revealed Word to bring them into obedience to Christ.
Conclusion
The focus of this paper has been to map out the contours of an
ortho-kerygma in the globalizing urban landscape of the twenty-first
century. It is my hope to attract more attention to one of the tripartite
elements of religion (belief, practice, and proclamation) that has of late
received less than adequate attention in our faith. In this discussion,
paying attention to our contemporary social location of a globalizing
and urbanizing postmodern context became imperative. Therefore, I
began by looking at the city in its ancient and contemporary characteristics, the place of the city in the biblical text, and ways in which these
features have been and could be harnessed for gospel witness. I equally
gave attention to the various models of gospel proclamation in the
church through the ages, before sketching out the outlines of an orthokerygma, particularly giving attention to the message, media, manner,
and goal of gospel proclamation. At core, it is a call for us, as the new
covenant people of God, to pay heed to how we seek identification with
the nations amongst whom we live in the post-modernizing, globalizing,
and urbanizing world. This thoughtful identification needs necessarily
to pay attention to both the distinctives of the Christian life and gospel
as well as the unique ways of being-in-the-world in the twenty-first cen-
(Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1962).
41. Burke, A Grammar of Motives, 543-583.
Toward an Ortho-Kerygma in the Urban Economy
137
tury so that we neither become engulfed by the cultural ethos of the
nations nor lose our capacity for effective witness in our world.
TTJ 16.2 (2013): 138-155
ISSN 1598-7140
“That You May Proclaim His
Excellencies”: The Missional Use
of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
Rolex Cailing*
Torch Trinity Graduate University, Korea
First Peter is a document that expresses the richness and struggles
of life in early Christianity. The overarching objective of this paper has
to do with how Peter uses the Old Testament to define “mission” in
the context of the New Testament church.1 In so doing, the paper will
show that Peter’s extrapolations from the OT to develop his terminology
regarding mission are also significant for understanding the suffering
Christian communities in Asia Minor.2
* Rev. Rolex Cailing is a PhD candidate in biblical studies at Torch Trinity
Graduate University. He is from the Philippines. This paper is revised from a
seminar paper submitted to TTGU.
1. Generally speaking, “mission” relates to Christians’ relationship to
the world, specifically in terms of their proclamation of the gospel message. In
this study, the word “mission” can be understood in two ways. First, it involves
relevant aspects of the church’s identity in Christ that becomes apparent in
a certain historical, cultural, and theological context. Thus, secondly, mission
reflects a concern for believers’ witness through their lifestyle in the midst of
a largely hostile environment, in the hope that some may be brought to faith
(cf. 2:12) which in turn leads to doxology. This definition concurs with A. J.
Köstenberger’s construal, “Mission in the General Epistles,” in Mission in the
New Testament: An Evangelical Approach, W. J. Larkin and J. F. Williams, ed.
(Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998), 191f. Cf. A. J. Köstenberger, “The Place of Mission in
New Testament Theology: An Attempt to Determine the Significance of Mission
within the Scope of the New Testament’s Message as a Whole,” Missiology: An
International Review 27, no. 3 (July 1999): 347-348.
2. G. L. Green, “The Use of the Old Testament for Christian Ethics in 1
Peter,” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (November 1990): 276.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
139
Recent studies have concentrated much on the concept of mission
in the Old Testament,3 its development in the New Testament,4 and
its significant place in 1 Peter.5 Related to the purposes of this study, it
should be noted that attempts have also been devoted to the use of the
OT in 1 Peter and in the NT as a whole.6 Furthermore, the ethical use of
the OT in 1 Peter has also been explored recently.7 Yet correlating mission with the use of the OT in 1 Peter has not been given its due. In this
regard, the focus of this paper is on how Peter’s employment of the OT
shapes his perspective on early church’s community life and mission.8
3. For example, S. McKnight, A Light among the Gentiles: Jewish Missionary
Activity in the Second Temple Period (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991); W. C. Kaiser,
“The Great Commission in the Old Testament,” International Journal of Frontier
Missions 13 (1996): 3-7; Kaiser, “Israel’s Missionary Call,” in Perspectives on
the World Christian Movement, edited by R. D. Winter and S. C. Hawthorne
(Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1999), 10-16; W. C. Kaiser, Mission in the
Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000); C. J.
H. Wright, “Old Testament Ethics: A Missiological Perspective,” Catalyst 26
(2000): 5-8; Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
(Downers Grove: IVP, 2006); S. J. Foster, “The Missiology of Old Testament
Covenant,” International Bulletin of Missiology Outreach 34, no. 4 (October 2010):
205-208.
4. Representatives are, P. T. O’Brien, Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995); D. J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts
in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997; A. Köstenberger, “Mission in the
General Epistles,” in Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach, ed. W.
L. Larkin and J. F. Williams (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998), 189-206; Köstenberger,
“The Place of Mission in New Testament Theology,” 347-362; E. J. Schnabel,
Early Christian Mission, 2 Volumes (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004); B. Chilton and
C. A. Evans, The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul: Tensions in Early Christianity
(SupNovT 115; Leiden: Brill, 2005).
5. For example, V. R. Steuernagel, “An Exiled Community as a Missionary
Community: A Study based on 1 Peter 2:9, 10,” ERT 10 (January 1986): 8-18;
R. W. Johnson, “Acts 6:2-4, 7; 1 Peter – Recovery of Passion in Missiological
Concern,” Review and Expositor 94 (1997): 599-603; M. Boyley, “1 Peter – A
Mission Document?” Reformed Theological Review 63, no. 2 (August 2004): 72-86;
C. Stenschke, “Reading First Peter in the Context of Early Christian Mission,”
Tyndale Bulletin 60, no. 1 (2009): 107-126.
6. J. A. Williams, “A Case Study in Intertextuality: The Place of Isaiah
in the ‘Stone’ Sayings in 1 Peter 2,” Reformed Theological Review 66, no. 1 (April
2007): 37-55; G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament
Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 1015-1045.
7. Green, “The Use of the OT,” 276-289; cf. J. A. Meek, The Gentile Mission
in Old Testament Citations in Acts: Text, Hermeneutic and Purpose (LNTS 385;
London: T&T Clark, 2008).
8. For a comprehensive treatment of the hermeneutic of 1 Peter, see W.
L. Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition in 1 Peter (Tübingen: Möhr Siebeck,
140
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
Peter and the Old Testament
How did Peter learn the OT? One of the most interesting examples
of Jesus’ possible influence in the form of Peter’s discussion concerning
Jesus Christ as the “stone” is found in 1 Peter 2:4-8.9 Peter’s exposition,
however, cannot be understood without positing the initial teaching that
he would have “received” from Jesus. There is no other part of Scripture
that makes such extensive reference to terms such as the “stone” and the
“rock” in relationship to Jesus Christ as the text above does. Notably,
much of Peter’s language here is taken from Psalm 118:22-23, Isaiah
8:14, and Isaiah 28:16.10 The influence of Jesus’ approach to the OT
seems apparent in Peter’s rhetorical strategy.
It is not insensible, then, to construe initially that Peter learned his
approach to the OT from the principles that he saw at work in Jesus’ own
interpretation of the OT. The three Synoptic Gospel narratives (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Luke 20:17) reveal Jesus’ approach of the
OT, an approach to which Peter must have been repeatedly exposed.11 In
addition, although not included in the New Testament, Mark (4:34) and
Luke (24:27, 45) suggest that Jesus would have frequently explained his
teachings to his followers and that he probably would have instructed
them privately from the OT.
Acts 10-11: Peter’s Missional Stance
Wright notes that the early preaching of Peter, even before his
encounter with Cornelius, indicates an awareness of the wider significance of the events of Easter and Pentecost. The list of peoples whom
he addressed on the day of Pentecost probably has universalizing intention. His appeal for repentance and baptism affirms that the promise of
forgiveness is for all who are far off (echoes of Is 44:3; Joel 2:32).12 Simi1989); for the use of OT in the development of the ethical exhortation, see
Green, “The Use of the OT,” 276-289.
9. Minear offers 7 linguistic constructions that entail the use of metaphors,
see “The House of Living Stones, 240-243; Best, “1 Peter 2:4-10,” 275f.
10. T. D. Lea, “How Peter Learned the Old Testament,” SWJT 22, no. 2
(Spring 1980): 96-97.
11. Cf. D. A. Oss who asks, “Should we use the methods evident among the
NT authors?” and notes, “Certainly a modified form of historico-grammatical
exegesis is evident in the NT, Rom 9:32-10:13 and 1 Pet 2:4-10 being cases
in point,” “The Interpretation of the ‘Stone’ Passages by Peter and Paul: A
Comparative Study,” JETS 32, no. 2 (June 1989): 199; see Lea, “How Peter
Learned the Old Testament,” 100.
12. Wright, The Mission of God, 514; cf. J. M. Scott, “Acts 2:9-11 as an
Anticipation of the Mission to the Nations,” in The Mission of the Early Church to
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
141
larly, in his preaching after the healing of the cripple at the temple gate,
Peter proclaims the fulfillment of the words of the prophets, not just
by bringing Messianic blessings to Israel itself, but also in fulfilling the
promise to Abraham – that all peoples on the earth will be blessed (Gn
12; Acts 3:25). For Peter and Luke, both the universality and particularity of the Abrahamic covenant are now embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.13
The context of Acts 10-11 deals with the problem of a group’s prejudices against an outsider. Cornelius was a Gentile and also an officer of
the Roman army. Peter was a Jewish Christian—or perhaps it is better to
say that he was a Christian Jew in pilgrimage. Although the OT writings
clearly spoke of God as the God of all the nations, Peter was brought
up in a strict tradition that precluded even having a meal or fellowship
with someone from another tribe or nation: “You yourselves know how
unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another
nation” (10:28). Suddenly all of Peter’s understanding of God is challenged in a dream concerning clean and unclean foods. The distinction
between the two types of food is what separated him from the Gentiles.
In a vision (at least three times) the Lord says, “What God has made
clean, do not call common” (10:15 ESV). Meanwhile, Cornelius also has
a dream in which the Lord speaks about Simon Peter. So he sends for
Peter, who without hesitation comes to Cornelius’ home.14 This is where
Peter gained a larger vision of the Christian faith in the context of the
church’s mission for the whole world (10:34-35).
Herein, the reader finds Peter coming to embrace God’s outreach to
the Jews in the homeland, the Diaspora Jews, the Gentiles among Jews,
and eventually to the Jews and the Gentiles everywhere. For God wishes
not “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pt
3:9 ESV). Persuaded by his call, Peter envisages the gospel’s outreach
from Jerusalem to Antioch and Rome. M. Bockmuehl finds a symbolic
link between the menagerie of animals Peter saw coming down from
Jews and Gentiles, ed. J. Adna and H. Kvalbein (Tübingen: Möhr Siebeck, 2000),
122.
13. Wright, The Mission of God, 515.
14. D. Lotz, “Peter’s Wider Understanding of God’s Will: Acts 10:34-48,”
International Review of Mission 77, no. 306 (April 1988): 201f; C. A. Miller rightly
observes that the Cornelius episode (Acts 10:1-11:18) plays a pivotal role in
the expansion of the gospel from Jerusalem to “the remotest part of the earth”
(1:8), “Did Peter’s Vision in Acts 10 Pertain to Men or the Menu?” BibSac
159, no. 635 (July-September 2002): 302; So Wright, The Mission of God, 514515. See also, R. J. Karris, “Missionary Communities: A New Paradigm for the
study of Luke-Acts,” CBQ 41, no. 1 (January 1979): 80-97; T. Strandenaes,
“The Missionary Speeches in the Acts of the Apostle and their Missiological
Implications,” Swedish Missiological Themes 99, no. 3 (2011): 341-354.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
heaven in a square fisherman’s sail and the indiscriminate assortment
of clean and unclean fish and animals that archaeology tells his Gentile neighbors used to eat in Bethsaida.15 In effect, according to him,
in Acts, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Peter, one finds a Peter who, after Joppa,
was thought of as gladly proclaiming a “multicultural and international
gospel.”16
Luke’s formidable skills as a writer drew out the lesson of Peter’s
vision to people. As the angel and Peter entered Cornelius’ house, so also
Cornelius entered God’s “house.” God has now granted the Gentiles
not only repentance unto life, but also the fullness of the Holy Spirit
and full acceptance into His household as God’s “new people.”17 To this
effect, Peter was the pioneer missionary18 of the Jerusalem church (Gal
2:7-8). Peter thus provides the Jewish Christian leadership a model for
mission. Peter’s stance on the tradition concerning Jesus finds its roots
in the models for Israel found in Jewish Scripture.19 There is not only
the ideal holy people for whom sanctification is the appropriate goal (Lv
11:44; 19:2; Dt 7:6) but also the ideal service or mission which has as
its goal the salvation of the world (Is 41:8-9; 42:1-4, 6-7; 43:10; 44:1-5,
21, 26; 45:20-25; 49:1-6).20
More to the point, at least three discernible sources reflect Peter’s
stance on mission: remembrance, reflection, and revelation.21 First, the
“memory” of his personally close relationship with Jesus Christ undoubtedly played a major role in Peter’s approach to mission. His sustained
contact with Christ served as a formative factor in his later life and vocation. This was reflected in his presentation of the gospel to Cornelius, as
15. M. Bockmuehl, Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory: The New Testament
Apostle in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 176.
16. Bockmuehl, Simon Peter, 176. See T. C. Casiño, “‘God Has No Favorites!’” Critical Components of Apostle Peter’s Missiological Paradigm,” TTJ 6
(2003): 163-182.
17. For a parallel account between Cornelius and Jonah, see R. W. Wall,
“Peter, ‘Son’ of Jonah: The Conversion of Cornelius in the Context of the Canon,” JSNT 29 (February 1987): 79-90.
18. Casiño, “God Has No Favorites,” 163; cf. M. Goulder, St Paul Versus St
Peter: A Tale of Two Missions (Louisville: WJK, 1995).
19. J. Painter, “James and Peter: Models of Leadership and Mission,” in
The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul: Tensions in Early Christianity, ed. B. Chilton
and C. A. Evans (SupNovT 115; Leiden: Brill, 2005), 143.
20. For an extensive study of the use of Isaiah in 1 Peter, see S. Moyise,
“Isaiah in 1 Peter,” in Isaiah in the New Testament, ed. S. Moyise and M. J. J. Menken (London: T&T Clark, 2005), 175-188.
21. See for example the Christological discussion by F. R. Howe, “Christ,
the Building Stone, in Peter’s Theology,” BibSac 157, no. 625 (January-March
2000): 35-43.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
143
already mentioned above (Acts 10:40-41). This was also reflected when
he was clarifying the availability of God’s saving grace to the Gentiles
(Acts 11:16). Peter’s take on being an “eyewitness” of God’s majesty
(2 Pt 1:16, 18; cf. 1 Pt 5:1) was prompted by his recollection of a great
event in the life of the Savior.
Secondly, Peter most likely did not just remember the key events
from Christ’s life, but also “reflected” on them, allowing them to shape
his thinking about his vocation. Consequently, the training and teaching
given to him by the Lord is stated in 1 Peter 5:1-5 (cf. John 21:15-22;
Luke 22:31-32; John 13), reflecting his leadership role both in affirming
the believers and in winning the Gentiles. The last and most important
is the revelation of truth from God himself. This principle of “revelation” involves the work of the Holy Spirit, directing the thoughts, convictions, and confessions of Peter (e.g., Mt 16:16-17). The body of the
revealed truth, that is, the body of God’s redemptive revelation (cf. John
16:13) was made clear in the apostle’s pastoral and eschatological proclamation (1 Pt 1:22).
1 Peter as a Missional Document
Recognizing the mission perspective in the NT requires an awareness of the influence of the early church’s mission consciousness and
missionary experiences in the NT writings.22 The missional concerns of
the NT community and their impact in the NT writings must be given
their due. Mission must be considered a potential part of the horizon
that shaped the aim of the biblical author.23
1 Peter as a Missional Document
Can 1 Peter be read in the context of early Christian mission?
According to C. Stenschke, while 1 Peter does not address the issue
of missionary work explicitly, some scholars see much of its content as
relevant for mission.24 Stenschke, however, sees the letter as a whole can
and should be read against the background of early Christian mission.25
He thus proposes that the theological themes of the letter come together
to form a coherent whole in the context of mission. Boyley26 affirms that
22. Senior, “The Struggle to be Universal,” 65.
23. For determining the place of mission in NT theology, see Köstenberger,
“The Place of Mission in New Testament Theology,” 347-362.
24. Stenschke, “Reading First Peter,” 107.
25. Stenschke, “Reading First Peter,” 108; Köstenberger, “Mission,” 189206; Robinson, “Some Missiological Perspectives,” 176-177; Boyles, “1 Peter,”
72-87.
26. Boyley, “1 Peter,” 86.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
1 Peter represents a mission document concerned with encouraging his
readers to engage in mission. He further notes that “suffering” was not
perceived to prevent mission and therefore the strong emphasis on holiness of life to promote the gospel in a hostile world. What pointers can
this lead to?
Three Missional Components
That 1 Peter has an undeniable missional contribution is recently
observed by some scholars. For instance, D. Senior notes that the letter’s contribution is the robust sense of Christian mission Peter conveys.
Springing from Peter’s point of view, Christians were exhorted neither
to flee from the world nor to condemn the world, but to participate in it
(2:13) and to treat it with respect and gentleness. It reflects the idea of
moving from presence and proclamation to doxology, with the hope that
in time the world will join the Christian community in glorifying God.27
The missional perspective of the letter can be elucidated in three
inter-locking ways. The first concern focuses on mission and identity.
Peter makes no attempt to hide the tension-filled life of the community
but rather to direct this tension towards mission. The strong accent of
the letter with regards to the believer’s identity (ge&noj, e!qnoj, lao&j, oi}
koj) does not contradict their call to mission. The identity and mission
are interrelated because in reality the church’s mission springs from its
identity.28 Peter thus reminds the church the heart of its faith in Jesus
Christ. The identity given to the church by God transforms Christians
into oi}koj tou~ qeou~ although outsiders call them “aliens” (paroi&kouj)
or “strangers” (parepidh&mouj). As oi}koj they have found the ultimate
meaning for their existence, a place in their community, and a task for
the whole life: o#pwj ta_j a)reta_j e)caggei&lhte (2:9).
The second dimension of mission refers to the relationship between
the concept of election and exclusion. Steuernagel thinks there is always
a thin line between the two: “[a]n arrogant exclusiveness is almost the
shadow of a healthy identity.” The history of Israel and even that of
27. Senior, 1 and 2 Peter, New Testament Message 20 (Wilmington: Glazier, 1980), 7; Casiño, “God Has No Favorites,” 163-178.
28. For a recent investigation on these terms, see D. G. Horrell, “‘Race’,
‘Nation’, ‘People’: Ethnic Identity-Construction in 1 Peter 2:9,” NTS 58 (2011):
123-143, who upholds that “with aggregative and oppositional modes of ethnic
reasoning, 1 Peter makes a crucial contribution to the construction of an ethnic
form of Christian identity”; cf. R. Feldmeier, “The ‘Nation’ of Strangers: Social Contempt and Its Theological Interpretation in Ancient Judaism and Early
Christianity,” in Ethnicity and the Bible, ed. M.C. Brett (Biblical Interpretation
Series 19; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 241-270, for a comprehensive background study
through sociological lens.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
145
the church illustrates partly this tension between “being a blessing to
the nations” (Gn 12:2) and being satisfied with the exclusiveness of
“we have Abraham as our father” (Luke 2:8).29 In this letter, however,
Peter offers a way to balance between identity and mission. God’s “new
people” were chosen yet they were not exclusive, that is, not closed to
outsiders. In fact, they were chosen for witness both in word and deed.
In its third aspect, one finds mission as a communal exercise. It
has been assumed that 1 Peter is not only a missional but also a strong
community document.30 The Christian faith, from a theological point
of view, is conceived of and articulated in terms of ge&noj, e!qnoj, lao&j,
oi}koj. From a pastoral dimension, Christians are not only reminded of
their stance on suffering but also their corporate solidarity in difficult
times (e.g., 4:8-10). Mission, finally, is conceived of as a task to be exercised in a communal way. Overall, in word and deed, in joy and pain,
it is the privilege of the oi}koj of God to be in His mission: o#pwj ta_j a)
reta_j e)caggei&lhte (2:9).
The Missional Use of the OT in 1 Peter
“Light to the Nations”: Recapitulation from the OT
To sustain what has been constructed above, it is necessary to note
that Peter makes an extensive use of the OT (LXX). He uses lengthy
quotations and phrases to advance his arguments (e.g., 1:24f; 2:6-8;
3:10-12). Ernest Best suggests that the author makes more extensive use
of the OT in proportion to the size of his letter than any other book in
the NT except Revelation.31
29. Steuernagel, “An Exiled Community,” 15-16; For a seminal study on
the issue, see J. H. Elliott, The Elect and the Holy (SupNovT 12; Leiden: Brill,
1966).
30. For the intrinsic link between church and mission, see Senior, “Correlating Images,” 3-16; Steuernagel, “An Exiled Community,” 16. For the relation between church and culture, see M. Volf, “Soft Difference: Theological
Reflection on the Relation Between Church and Culture in 1 Peter,” Ex Auditu
10 (1994): 15-30; S. Tracy, “Domestic Violence in the Church and Redemptive
Suffering in 1 Peter,” CTJ 41, no. 2 (November 2006): 279-296; D. Flemming,
Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission (Downers
Grove: IVP, 2005); for some lexical links, see M. Chin, “A Heavenly Home for
the Homeless: Aliens and Strangers in 1 Peter,” Tyndale Bulletin 42, no. 1 (May
1991): 96-112.
31. Quoted in W. D. Kirkpatrick, “The Theology of First Peter,” SWJT 25,
no. 1 (Fall 1982): 64, n20; Cf. “D. M. Allen, “”Genesis in James, 1 and 2 Peter
and Jude,” in Genesis in the New Testament, ed. M. J. J. Menken and S. Moyise
(London: T&T Clark, 2012), 156-159; Deterding, “Exodus Motifs,” 58-65; see
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A number of observations should be put forward in this regard.
First, one finds in 1 Peter recurring applications of the temple imagery
that suggest Petrine reinterpretation of the Israelite sanctuaries (e.g.,
1:2; 4:17; 5:10), the clearest of which is found in 2:4-10. Secondly, the
prevalence of Exodus motif especially in the first two chapters also provides for the plausibility of the tabernacle imagery in the epistle.32 Peter
indicates not only that God’s saving action such as in the Exodus is recapitulated at various times in history, but he also presents the church’s
proclamation to be the mighty acts of God. Thirdly, the structural development of the epistle, along the lines of the history of Israel can be envisioned (e.g., tabernacle, temple, judgment or destruction, restoration or
rebuilding). Here in lies the basis for understanding the tension in living
as the “citizen-aliens” in the world.
1 Peter 2:9-10: A Test Case
Scriptural Features
How significant is the Jewish tradition to Peter’s view of mission
especially in 1 Peter 2:9-10? To answer this question, it is necessary to
survey the notable scriptural features with materials drawn from the
Jewish tradition that Peter employed. First, Peter identifies his readers
as parepidh&mouj diaspora~j in 1:1 and as paroi&kouj kai_ parepidh&mouj
in 2:11. He then cites from the Old Testament texts: Leviticus 11:44 in
1 Peter 1:16, Isaiah 40:6-8 in 1 Peter 1:24-25, Isaiah 28:16 in 1 Peter
2:6, and Psalm 34:13-17 in 1 Peter 3:10-12. Secondly, Peter alludes to
Psalm 33:9 in 1 Peter 2:3, Psalm 117:22 LXX in 1 Peter 2:7, Isaiah 8:14
in 1 Peter 2:8, Isaiah 8:12-13 in 1 Peter 3:14-15, Isaiah 11:2 in 1 Peter
4:14, Proverbs 11:31 LXX in 1 Peter 4:18, Proverbs 3:34 LXX in 1 Peter
5:5, and to Psalm 22:14 in 1 Peter 5:5. Thirdly, he employs materials
from Isaiah 53:4, 5. 6, 9 in 1 Peter 2:21-25, and in midrash form, alludes
to the Noah flood story in 1 Peter 3:20-22. Notably, whereas there are
explicit citations in 1 Peter 1:1 to 3:12, there are only implicit ones in 1
Peter 3:13 to 5:14.33
the list of J. J. F. Lim, “Visiting Strangers and Resident Aliens” in 1 Peter and the
Greco-Roman Context,” S&I 4 (2010): 107-108.
32. Contra McKnight, who perceives that all the references were templerelated imageries; See the hints of Mbuvi, Temple, Exile and Identity, 2; P. E. Deterding, “Exodus Motifs in First Peter,” Concordia Journal 7, no. 2 (March 1981):
58-65.
33. Krentz has provided the list, “Creating a Past,” 41-42. Cf. NA27 772808; UBS4 887-901; Lim, “‘Visiting Strangers and Resident Aliens’,” 107-108.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
147
The well-known key passage in 1 Peter 2:9-10 presents a second
scriptural presence featured in the letter:
1 Peter 2:9-10
u(mei=j de\ ge/noj e0klekto&n, basi/leion i9era&teuma, e1qnoj a#gion, lao_j ei0j peripoi/hsin, o#pwj ta_j a)reta_j e0caggei/lhte tou~ e0k sko&touj u(ma~j kale/santoj
ei0j to_ qaumasto_n au)tou~ fw~j: oi3 pote ou) lao_j nu~n de\ lao_j qeou~, oi9 ou)k h)
lehme/noi nu~n de\ e0lehqe/ntej.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy (ESV).
Obviously, Peter applies to his readers the titles that originally had
referred to Israel and gives them the names of Hosea’s children although
they clearly are not Jews.34 Whether this approach serves Peter’s purposes or not, will be discussed below.
Narrative and Missional Context
How dependent is this segment on the OT? How were discernible
OT motifs embedded in this section? Looking at the structure of the
letter, it is possible to perceive that 1 Peter 2:9-10 is exactly at the end
of the first segment (1 Pt 1:3-2:10). While in the following segment (1
Pt 2:11-4:11) Peter deals both with the Christian life in society and in
the Christian community, the former segment establishes the basis for
it expressed in ethical and pastoral manner. Verses 9-10 serve as a link
between the theological and pastoral.35 As oi}koj tou~ qeou~ (4:17; cf. 2:5),
it is fundamental to declare his a)reta_j (2:9)36 to the outsiders because it
is through this opportunity that they may also experience “mercy” and
become God’s own people (2:10). The manner in which the Christians
are to express their witness is in some way alluded to in the following
segment. But the theological basis for doing it was given first.
34. Krentz, “Creating a Past,” 42.
35. Cf. K. R. Snodgrass, “1 Peter 2:1-10: Its Formation and Literary Affinities,” NTS 24 (1977): 97-106; also, J. R. Slaughter, “The Importance of
Literary Argument for Understanding 1 Peter,” BibSac 152, no. 605 (JanuaryMarch 1995): 72-91.
36. Schutter classifies 2:9 as an “explicit allusion” to Exodus 19:5-6 and
Isaiah 43:20-21. He views 2:9 as an amalgam of the two. He also classifies 2:9 as
an “implicit allusion” to Isaiah 42:12; Malachi 3:17; Haggai 2:9. See Hermeneutic
and Composition, 37-40.
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The whole pericope of vv. 4-10 is dependent on the OT even if it
is interpreted in a Christological perspective.37 Most scholars agree that
Peter assumed some material from the Jewish Christian tradition38 that
was already used in its proper context. Conversely, this material was
adapted to the author’s goal of applying it to community, the majority of which were Gentile Christians.39 1 Peter 2:4-10 is a particularly
graphic illustration of the manner in which Israel’s sacred tradition is
appropriated to affirm the continuity and discontinuity in identity and
status of the eschatological people of God. In this context Mbuvi finds
the clearest application of the temple imagery, which he considers to a
Petrine reinterpretation of the Israelite sanctuaries.40 At the same time,
Peter continues his theology of election not only in his exposition of the
stone in 1 Peter 2:4-5 but also in 2:9-10, in terms of its implications for
God’s continuing community. His description of the church (2:9-10) is
framed with the OT quotations (Ex 19:6; Is 43:20-21).41
37. At least two facets of the imagery in 2:4-8 can be envisaged: first, Christ
as the basis or foundation of the building; and secondly, He is seen as having been
rejected by the builders, yet approved by God, and ultimately in turn is viewed
as a rock of offense or stumbling for those who reject Him. Cf. Howe, “Christ,”
38f. See a more comprehensive discussion, F. J. van Rensburg, “Metaphors in
the Soteriology in 1 Peter: Identifying and Interpreting the Salvific Imageries,”
in Salvation in the New Testament: Perspectives on Soteriology, ed. J. G. van der Watt
(SupNovT 121; Leiden: Brill, 2005), 419, n30; and his extended discussion, van
Rensburg, “A code of conduct for children of God who suffer unjustly: Identity,
Ethics and Ethos in 1 Peter,” in Identity, Ethics, and Ethos in the New Testament, ed.
J. G. van der Watt (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006), 489-491.
38. Best, “1 Peter 2:4-10,” 278-282, also, n4.
39. For an in-depth evaluation of Peter’s employment of the OT in this
section, see E. Best, “I Peter 2:4-10 – A Reconsideration,” NovT 11, no. 4 (October 1969): 270-293; cf. special studies devoted to this concern, Elliott, The Elect
and the Holy; B. Gartner, The Temple and the Community in Qumran and the New
Testament (SNTSMS 1; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965).
40. A. M. Mbuvi, Temple, Exile and Identity in 1 Peter (LNTS 345; London:
T&T Clark, 2007), 1; cf. S. McKnight, 1 Peter, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 30, who claims that Peter draws deeply from the imagery of the
temple with its rituals and worship to describe what has happened to those who
enter the family of God.
41. D. A. Oss, “The Interpretation of the ‘Stone’ Passages by Peter and
Paul: A Comparative Study,” JETS 32, no. 2 (June 1989): 193-195. For a set of
guiding principles to studying the metaphorical language of 1 Peter 2, see P. S.
Minear, “The House of Living Stones: A Study of 1 Peter 2:4-12,” Ecumenical
Review 34, no. 3 (July 1982): 238-248; N. K. Gupta, “A Spiritual House of Royal
Priests, Chosen and Honored: The Presence and Function of Cultic Imagery in
1 Peter,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 36, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 61-76.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
149
Jewish Categories for the Gentile Context
Peter consolidates the pivotal points in Israel’s story to show the
continuity between the followers of Jesus and the Israelites. In effect,
the OT ushers Peter’s readers their true identity.42 For Peter’s readers,
this means that their present “suffering” (3:13-4:19; 5:8-9) is neither
a surprise to God nor a contradiction of their relationship to him as
his e)klektoi~j (1:1; 2:9a; 5:13; cf. 2:9b; 5:10b). In this case, Christian
particularity that causes scorn and animosity from others can be transformed into the grand narrative of God’s work, crossing the ethnic
boundaries.
The narrative moves from affirmation (of identity) to mission and
verbal proclamation and life witness come into focus in 2:9-10. This
affirmation explicated from the numerous OT texts (e.g., Ex 19:5-6; Is
43:20-21; Hos 1:6, 9; 2:1, 23) addresses Peter’s readership just as it had
the Israelites. In other words, Peter’s readers were to draw their identity
from the OT categories of “called of God (priesthood),” “offered to God
(sacrifice),” and “built by God (temple).” These formulations need to be
unpacked, however.
1 Peter 2:9 applies to Peter’s scattered readers four titles (referring
to the nation of Israel) drawn from the OT: ge&noj e)klekto_n, basi&leion
i(era&teuma, e!qnoj a#gion, lao_j ei)j peripoi&hsin.43 In this regard, how significant are these Jewish titles to Peter’s non-Jewish readers? First, Peter’s
employment of ge&noj e)klekto&n recalls the e)klektoi~j applied to them in
1:1 and the phrase recalls Isaiah 43:20-21 LXX, as given below.
Isaiah 43:20-21
eu)logh&sei me ta_ qhri&a tou~ a)grou~ seirh~nej kai_ qugate&rej strouqw~n o#ti
e!dwka e)n th~| e)rh&mw| u#dwr kai_ potamou_j e)n th~| a)nu&drw| poti&sai to_ ge&noj
mou to_ e)klekto&n. lao&n mou o$n periepoihsa&mhn ta_j a)reta&j mou dihgei~sqai.
hn(y twnbw ynt hd#h tyx yndbkt
yryxb ym( twq#hl Nm#yb twrhn Mym rbdmb yttnyk
s wrpsy ytlht yl ytrcy wz-M(
“The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostrich, for I give
water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen
people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my
praise” (ESV, emphasis mine).
God’s gift of water to deliver Israel in the wilderness demonstrated
God’s election of Israel as His people (ge&noj). God’s provision of water
in the wilderness affirmed that He is Israel’s Savior who was “to give
42. See especially Krentz, “Creating a Past,” 48f; also, Horrell, “Race,” 30f.
43. See Boring, “Appendix 2: Images of the Church in 1 Peter,”203-207.
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drink to my people, my chosen” (43:20).44 Peter applies these expressions to his readers to mean that God’s interventions have now made
them the “resident aliens” (parepidh&mouj) a chosen nation. A further
description lao_j was also assigned to them as God’s own people, who
have a goal to fulfill, namely to narrate God’s a)reta_j.
Secondly, they were also called as basi&leion i(era&teuma, a controlling theme in 1 Peter 2:4-5, and applied a category drawn from Exodus
19:5-645 LXX.
Exodus 19:5-6
kai_ nu~n e)an_ a)koh~| a)kou&shte th~j e)mh~j fwnh~j kai_ fula&chte th_n diaqh&khn mou
e#sesqe& moi lao_j periou&sioj a)po_ pa&ntwn tw~n e)qnw/n~ e)mh_ ga&r e)stin pa~sa
h( gh~, u(mei~j de_ e!sesqe& moi basi&leion i(era&teuma kai_ e!qnoj a#gion tau~ta ta_
r(hm
& ata e)rei~j toi~j ui(oi~j Israhl
Mtrm#w ylqb w(m#t (wm#-M) ht(w
Cr)h-lk yl-yk Mym(h-lkm hlgs yl Mtyyhw ytyrb-t)
#wdq ywgw Mynhk tklmm yl-wyht Mt)w
l)r#y ynb-l) rbdt r)# Myrbdh hl)
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth
is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel” (ESV).
What makes Peter’s readership royal priests? While in the OT
context, this category had referred to the Israelites “located between
the escape from Egypt and the giving of the law,” in 1 Peter the designation was given to the Christians “who have experienced their own
exodus from slavery to sin, coming now under the dominion of the high
king of the universe.” Carson clearly points out that in both contexts,
the notion of a basi&leion i(era&teuma has less to do with establishing the
authority of God’s covenant people (old or new) than with the themes
of obedience, holiness, privilege, mission, and self-identity under God’s
good purposes.46
Thirdly, drawing from the exact wording of Exodus 19:6 LXX,
Peter’s readers were called e!qnoj a#gion. Peter’s application of the e!qnoj
points to seeing Jews and the Gentiles as one nation under the new cov44. See Carson, in Commentary, 1030.
45. See Gupta, “A Spiritual House of Royal Priests,” 73-74, who argues
that Peter transfers key images from the Jewish people to believers as a whole.
46. Carson, Commentary, 1031. K. H. Jobes notes that “the Kingdom of
God is composed of believers who must think of themselves as holy with respect
to the world, set apart for purity and a purposes demanded by God. This is the
priesthood that serves the King of the universe,” 1 Peter, BECNT (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2005), 161.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
151
enant. In its OT context,47 the expression is an announcement of the fact
that “the descendants of Abraham, just released from slavery in Egypt,
were on the verge of becoming constituted as a tribe, a nation, with their
own constitution, land, and covenant with their God.”
The fourth category, [God’s] lao_j ei)j peripoi&hsin is found neither
in Exodus 19:5-6 nor in Isaiah 43:20-21 but the idea is clear in both OT
texts.48 Two things can be envisaged here. One, if the Israelites were to
obey Yahweh and keep his covenant, they were promised to be considered as his “treasured people” – a “royal priesthood” and a “holy nation.”
Two, God’s purpose was to rescue his exiled people (lao_j) that they may
make known his a)reta_j. To Isaiah, these two (promise and purpose) are
manifested in the deliverance of God’s people from the exile. To Peter,
these are manifested in terms of salvation and transformation of God’s
people, along with their hope in the final consummation by the Triune
God.49
Lastly, Peter adds two descriptions in reapplying the names of
Hosea’s children (Hosea 2:23, [2:25 LXX]) that were used to describes
the adulterous Israel: “those who have been constituted the people of
God by God’s remarkable mercy” (2:10):
Hosea 2:25
kai_ sperw~ au)thn e)mautw~| e)pi_ th~j gh~j kai_ e)leh&sw th_n Ou)k-h)lehme&nhn kai_
e)rw~ tw|~ Ou) law|~ mou lao&j mou ei} su& kai_ au)to_j e)rei~ ku&rioj o( qeo&j mou ei} su&
hmxr )l-t) ytmxrw r)b yl hyt(rzw
p yhl) rm)y )whw ht)-yM( ym(-)ll ytrm)w
“and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No
Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall
say, ‘You are my God’” (ESV).
In its OT context, this passage is part of an oracle in which God in
mercy overturns his own sentence against his unfaithful people. Peter
uses the negative names (hmxr )l and ym( )l) to describe his readers’
alien state which has now been reversed. Considerably, they are now a
people that have experienced “mercy” by virtue of God’s election. Likewise, God also gives them a goal to fulfill, namely to narrate God’s a)
reta_j.50 It means that the narrative of God, that is, what God has done,
47. Michaels, 1 Peter, 108-109; Boring, 1 Peter, 99-100; Davids, The First
Epistle of Peter, 92; Best, “1 Peter 2:4-10,” 282f; Horrell, “Race, Nation, People,”
30f.
48. Esp. Boring, 1 Peter, 100; Carson, in Commentary, 1031; Davids, The
First Epistle of Peter, 92; Elliott, “Salutation and Exhortation,” 421f.
49. Cf. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, 92-93; Michaels, 1 Peter, 110-111.
50. This is a term frequently used in the Greek world but rare in the NT,
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is the object of Christian proclamation. Christians should declare a narrative about their God who has made them his people, for this action
merits public recognition (cf. 1 Pt 3:15; 4:16). The texts apply the language of honor to God51 in their allusions to how God had powerfully
acted in calling them.
A theological-missional ramifications merit a space for discussion.
It is noteworthy that Peter uses the OT concepts and expressions to
provide his readers with a new identity, exhortations to build a new
character, and a new task (4:17; 2:5). Considerably, these parepidh&mouj
are also God’s ge&noj e)klekto&n (2:9; cf. 1:1-2). Peter’s characterization of
his recipients’ identity in those terms represents an effort to equip the
church for the fulfillment of its mission. It is in this regard, however, that
scholars missed to see Peter’s missional employment of the OT.
The missional purpose is introduced by the phrase o#pwj ta_j a)
reta_j e)caggei&lhte (v.9b)52. Although some scholars see the missional
import in this climactic purpose statement,53 the material has more to
offer than what they have thus far observed. The statement implies that
the OT categories not only apply to the identity of the believers, as
God’s “new people” (2:9-10), but also they have implications for the
church’s missionary task. Similarly, Köstenberger concurs that Peter’s
entire vision for the church’s mission takes its cue from the OT concept
of Israel as a mediatorial body, a light to the nations whose task is to
reveal God’s glory (Ex 19:6; Is 43:20; quoted in 1 Pt 2:9; cf. Is 42:6;
49:6).54 Analogous to Israel’s intended function, Peter perceives the
church’s presence in the world from the vantage point of mission, stressappearing only in Philippians 4:7; 2 Peter 1:3, 5; and 1 Peter 2:9. It denotes
“consummate,” “excellence,” or “merit” within a social context. Hence, the use
of a)reta_j invites a recognition resulting in glory. This term is frequently used of
a “manifestation of divine power,” a usage that fits well in 1 Peter. See Boring, 1
Peter, 100-101; Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, 93.
51. See Elliott, 1 Peter, 439-40.
52. In v. 5 the role of the “priesthood” was to offer “sacrifices, here (v.9b)
the nature of the priesthood is given a missional focus, the priests were given
the task of proclamation, a job that is associated with prophets. See Gupta, “A
Spiritual House of Royal Priests,” 74.
53. For example, D. Senior, 1 and 2 Peter, New Testament Message 20
(Wilmington: Glazier, 1980), 7.
54. A. Köstenberger, “Mission in the General Epistles,” 202. Also, “Israel
failed in this task (Rom 2:24; quoting Is 52:5; Ez 36:20), but Christ, as Israel’s
representative, succeeded (Luke 2:32; quoting Is 42:6; 49:6), and transferred the
task to the apostolic church (Acts 13:47; quoting Is 49:6),” 202; A. Köstenberger
and P. T. O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission
(Leicester: Apollos, 2001), a comprehensive treatment. Cf. Beale and Carson,
Commentary, 1015-1045, for OT background.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
153
ing its identity as a witnessing community.55 Peter’s stance is enhanced
by another purposive missional exhortation introduced by i#na (“so that”
2:12). It means that the proclamation of God’s a)reta_j must be undergirded by their “excellent behavior” (that is, witness by conduct) as the
“new community” of God56 living in the unbelieving, hostile world. The
intention is for God’s glory.
The Nature of the Missional Task: Proclamation and Life Witness
According to Köstenberger:
The distinction between active verbal proclamation and a more ‘passive’
emphasis on Christian lifestyle ‘should not be too hastily obliterated’. It
seems advisable, however, not to draw the lines too sharply either. One
may rather conceive of mission broadly enough to accommodate both
components, verbal gospel proclamation and life witness.57
The question, then, is “What exactly is the nature of the missionary task
according to Peter?” Three foregoing comments clarify this question: the
continuity between the old and new covenant people, the necessity of
holiness, and the suffering of Jesus.58
First, by reassuring his readers that they constitute a “chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” God’s special possession, and those
who have received God’s mercy, Peter shows the continuity that exists
between God’s old and continuing people. Also, as hinted elsewhere,
Peter’s incorporation of the OT concept of mission into his vision of the
church points to the essential continuity between the dynamics of mission in both Testaments. Perceiving the church’s presence in the world
from the vantage point of mission, Peter asserts its identity as a witnessing community.59 Green accentuates that the challenges from outside
55. P. J. Robinson, “Missiological Perspectives from I Peter 2:4-10,”
Missionalia 17 (1989): 176-187; Köstenberger, “Mission,” 203.
56. See the discussion by Steuernagel, “Exiled Community,” 8-18;
Köstenberger, “Mission,” 203.
57. Köstenberger, “Mission,” 200; cf. D. Senior, “Correlating Images of
Church and Images of Mission in the New Testament,” Missiology: An International
Review 23, no. 1 (January 1995): 3-16, who offers three dominant images in the
NT representing the task of the church: a sending church, a witnessing church, a
receptive church.
58. In this regard, see the Christological discussion by Kirkpatrick, who
sees “suffering” as a consistent theme that runs through the epistle, “The
Theology,” 74-79.
59. Robinson, “Some Missiological Perspectives,” 176-187; Köstenberger,
“Mission,” 203; see as well, Green, “Faithful Witness in the Diaspora,” 283.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
the church provide the occasion for solidifying the church’s root in the
ancient purposes of God.60
Secondly, Peter gives his readers a distinctive identity that is bound
up tightly with God’s mercy to them in His Son, and with their response
in obedient faith, and holiness. Thus, anchored in this light, Peter
introduces the theme of “holiness.” The entire section of 1:13-2:10 is
devoted to Peter’s exhortation to his readers to live holy, spiritually separated lives.61 This exhortation for holiness is directed toward the believers’ responsibility to reflect God’s character in the midst of a watching,
unbelieving world. Significantly, this injunction is grounded in God’s
original command to the people he had “called out” from slavery in
Egypt “to be holy and set apart for him” (1:15-16; quoting Lv 11:44-45;
19:2; 20:7). By living holy, Peter’s Christian readers would radiate to the
world God’s very own nature, just as Israel was called to do.62 Notably,
however, the power for living this kind of life is not drawn from one’s
own moral capacity, but derived from Christ’s redemption (1:18-23).63
One important place of application for this concern is in the
employment of Haustafel (1 Pt 2:18-3:11) by Peter. In Peter’s use of a
Christological-salvific, birth-imagery (e.g., 1:3, 23; 2:2-3)64 and that of
a family-imagery in the household ethics, “submission” (u(pota&ssw) is
seen as a controlling pointer to an exemplary relationship. Even believers’ submission to earthly authorities – civil, economic, familial, or
ecclesial (2:13, 18; 3:1; 5:1, 5) – is necessary ultimately for mission.65
60. See Green, “Faithful Witness in the Diaspora,” 283f.; Senior,
“Correlating Images,” 10-12.
61. Elliott, “Salutation and Exhortation,” 415-25.
62. D. O’Connor, “Holiness of Life as a Way of Christian Witness,”
International Review of Mission 80, no. 317 (January 1991): 17; Köstenberger,
“Mission,” 203; F. R. Howe, “The Christian Life in Peter’s Theology,” BibSac
157, no. 627 (July-September 2000): 304-314. For an application of this call,
see R. W. Quere, “The AIDS Crisis: A Call to Mission Based on 1 Peter,” Currents
in Theology and Mission 14, no. 5 (October 1987): 361-369.
63. Cf. Kirkpatrick, “The Theology,” 74-81.
64. See van Rensburg, “Metaphors in the Soteriology in 1 Peter,” 418432; and his extended discussion, van Rensburg, “Identity, Ethics and Ethos in
1 Peter,” 489-491.
65. A. Barr, “Submission Ethic in the First Epistle of Peter,” The Hartford
Quarterly 2, no. 3 (Spring 1962): 27-33; van Rensburg, “Identity, Ethics and
Ethos in 1 Peter,” 490-495; Köstenberger, “Mission,” 204; Green, “Faithful
Witness in the Diaspora,” 286-287; cf. the role of women in recent debates,
D. L. Balch, Let Wives Be Submissive: The Domestic Code in 1 Peter (SBLMS 26;
Chicago: Scholars Press, 1981); B. J. Bauman-Martin, “Women on the Edge:
New Perspective on Women in the Petrine Hustafel,” JBL 123, no. 2 (Summer
2004): 253-279.
The Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter
155
Mission provides a powerful rationale for an attractive lifestyle before a
watching, hostile world.
Thirdly, Peter argues that the reason for “Christ’s suffering” was
the salvation of his readers (2:21, 24a, 24b; 3:18). Also, the outcome of
Christ’s suffering was that they were brought to God (3:18), made witnesses of the revelation of Christ’s glory (1:11; 4:13; 5:1b), and given
the privilege to share in Christ’s glory (5:1). The application that emanates from this definition of their identity is both Messianic and missional. Peter presents Jesus not merely as their Lord and Savior, but
also as their supreme example in suffering (2:21-25). Peter links the
exhortation to suffer for doing what is right (3:17) with the explanatory
statement in 3:18, implying that patient suffering may even lead some
to God. As in 2:9-12, verbal proclamation is linked with the necessity of
holy life (3:16).
Conclusion
As discussed in this paper, Peter’s employment of the OT is rhetorically interwoven with his concern for mission. In doing so, 1 Peter
clearly shows that the Christian lifestyle must manifest certain unique
qualities that will render the gospel proclamation attractive to those
who do not yet believe. Contrary to some who exclusively stress the
discontinuity between the dynamics involved in the OT and the NT,
the implication of Peter’s incorporation of the OT concept of mission
into God’s continuing community points to the essential relationship
between mission in the OT and NT. If this observation can be sustained,
this study contributes to the ongoing subset, if not a major discussion in
biblical theology—i.e., looking at the interface of the story line between
the OT and the NT.
Moreover, Peter’s use of the OT in the context of understanding
Christian identity and mission can shed light to the task of reading the
whole Bible from the angle of mission or from a missional framework
and discovering its implications to biblical hermeneutics.66
To this end, the present study has attempted to offer how 1 Peter
can be read not just Messianically but also missionally. The vocation
of the church as God’s chosen race is to narrate God’s a)reta_j, and, as
such, this act is explicitly missional, it leads to doxology (2:12), the ultimate goal of all missions.
66. This is an inquiry that has been put forward by some scholars like
Wright. See The Mission of God, 22-69; cf. J. Nissen, New Testament and Mission:
Historical and Hermeneutical Perspectives (Berlin: Peter Lang, 1999), 13-19.
TTJ 16.2 (2013): 156-182
ISSN 1598-7140
Accreditation and Affiliation
in India’s Higher Education
Lauren J. Kim
Torch Trinity Graduate University, Korea
As India is fastly developing, its educational system continues to
undergo changes. In the process, the University Grants Commission
(UGC) has excluded most of the nation’s theological programs from its
educational framework. This is unfortunate since this act of the government marginalizes people who have the potential to become a robust
resource as educators, professionals, and leaders. It is imperative that
Indian Christians in the meanwhile continue to become educated not
only in Christianity but also in secular studies. They must continue to
join and change secular society so that Christian institutions and youth
can have greater opportunities to help build the nation.
Given this context, this research will discuss important accreditation organizations within India’s framework of higher education. The
purpose is to gain insight on available accreditation systems both secular
and Christian. What began as an in-house discussion on admissions at
the graduate seminary level transformed into a labyrinth. It became clear
that the educational systems in postcolonial Asia can be quite complex.
In many ways, they are fusions of the systems in America, Great Britain,
and Western Europe. India’s Christian education is no exception.1
To give readers a broad understanding, this article will be divided
into four sections. Because we are dealing with Christian education, the
first section will provide a very brief background regarding the country
and its Christian history. The second part will discuss Indian government’s accreditation system for tertiary institutions and schools. The
third section will summarize the two of India’s largest Christian accrediting and affiliating bodies: Asia Theological Association (ATA) and Ser1. This research underwent three stages. It began as an in-house discussion
at Torch Trinity Graduate University because statistically we have given more
scholarships to Indians more than any other nationality. Then as I began to research India’s situation more (because it was so different from my own Western
education), it turned into a paper for our admissions officers to read. Finally, at
the behest of my colleague, I generalized parts of my initial paper to accommodate a larger audience.
India’s Higher Education
157
ampore. Though there are other accrediting bodies, there is only room
to discuss these two (and even then, as overviews). In addition, the
American educational system will intermittently be used as a reference
point of comparison.2
This article is more of a report; it barely scratches the wide and
complex surface of the Indian higher educational system. Thus deeper
questions cannot be answered here but simply raised in the last section
under “Inquiries.” Issues regarding global relationships, transferability,
and awareness will be raised for further research at the end of this paper.
Palliative solutions that were recommended to Torch Trinity Graduate
University’s admissions office are also added. The appendix contains
Christian ratios in India’s regions.
India’s Christian Background
India is currently “slightly one-third size of the US”3 as the seventh largest country in the world.4 The Republic of India is divided into
twenty-eight states and seven union territories. States and unions are
divided into smaller districts. Within the states are people groups whose
physical features range from Indo-Aryan (72%), Dravidian (25%), to
Mongoloid (3%). Similarly, the country itself is extremely diverse. Official languages enumerate to twenty-two; and there are more dialects and
derivatives of these languages spoken in smaller tribes. Hindi and English are the two most commonly used languages, where English often
plays the role of a second language to many groups.
The country has an ancient Christian history, hidden to many
Westerners. Some churches trace their origins back to the one of the
twelve disciples, the Apostle Thomas.5 Although the claim’s verac2. I would also like to thank to Gnanaraj, who has worked as an admissions officer at New Life College in Bangalore. Without his discussions and
assistance, my first draft would have been leaner and more skeletal. He is also a
doctoral candidate at Torch Trinity Graduate University.
3. “India,” CIA Factbook, under Geography, accessed January 7, 2014,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html. Compare this to South Korea which has almost 49 million people who are nearly
homogeneous with one language (and English is taught in schools as well) with
31.6 percent as Christians (nearly 15.5 million people). “Korea, South,” CIA
Factbook, under People and Society, accessed February 10, 2014, https://www.
cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html.
4. It is 3,287,263 square kilometers, “Country Comparison: [sic] Area,”
CIA Factbook, accessed January 7, 2014, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html.
5. For a fuller treatment regarding the historicity of Indian Thomastic
studies, see chapter 4 in Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India: From
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
ity is difficult to confirm, there are other accounts that demonstrate
Christianity’s early presence there. For example, the Christian apologist, Pantaenus, was sent to India to debate with Hindu philosophers
by the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt around 180 AD. According to his
account, some Indians had in their possession the Hebrew translation
of the Gospel of Matthew, which they claimed to have received from the
Apostle Bartholomew.6
Despite Christianity’s germinal presence, the growth of Christianity has remained minimal over the millenniums. Today, Christians compose about 2.3 percent of the total population of 1.22 billion people,
trailing far behind the Hindus (80.5%) and Muslims (13.4%).7 According to India’s 2011 census, there are over 24 million Christians, 138
million Muslims, and 827.5 million Hindus.8 It is also known that many
Christians come from poor backgrounds.
Christians are concentrated in pockets within the country. India’s
census notes that “Christianity has emerged as the major religion in three
North-eastern states, namely, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya.”9
Thus, the largest concentration of Christians is located in the northeastern region of India. The state of Nagaland borders Myanmar. More
than 90 percent of the Naga people claim to be Christian (1.75 million
Christians), among whom 60 percent classify themselves as Baptist.10
Mizoram, located between Bangladesh and Myanmar, is also a “Christian dominated state,” with 90.5 percent of the Mizo Christians being
Beginnings to the Present, Oxford History of the Christian Church, paperback ed.
(Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2010), 91-115.
6. Samuel Moffet, A History of Christianity in Asia, Volume 1: Beginnings to
1500, 2nd rev. and corrected ed. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2009), 36-38.
7. CIA Factbook, “India,” under People and Society, accessed January 7,
2014, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html.
8. Census India, “Population by Religious Communities,” Government
of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General & Census
Commissioner India, accessed February 14, 2014, http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/C_Series/Population_by_religious_communities.htm.
9. Census India, “Religion,” Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner India, accessed
February 14, 2014, http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/religion.aspx.
The census was published in 2011.
10. Manpreet Singh, “The Soul Hunters of Central Asia: The Most Baptist State in the World—Nagaland—Is Vying to Become a Powerhouse for CrossCultural Missions,” Christianity Today, posted February 2, 2006, page 1, accessed
January 27, 2013, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/february/38.51.
html.
India’s Higher Education
159
Presbyterian.11 North of the Bangladeshi border is Meghalaya; here
reside over 1.6 million Christians comprising 70 percent of the state’s
population.12
The 2011 census lists other states with a significant number of
Christians: Manipur (34%), Goa (26.7%), Andaman and Nicobar
Islands (21.7%), Kerala (19%), and Arunachal Pradesh (18.7%).13 At
the tip of the subcontinent, for example, there is Kerala, located on the
southwestern coast. It has the largest number of Christians (6 million)
although the state itself is 19 percent Christian. Kerala’s neighboring
state, Tamil Nadu, has nearly 3.8 million Christians. They comprise 6.9
percent of the state’s population. Despite these big numbers, in a population with over a billion people, Christians only compose 2.3 percent of
the nation’s total population. Therefore, elsewhere in India, Christianity’s presence is marginal.14
Higher Education under India’s Central Government
This section will provide an overview of India’s higher education
and its accreditation system in three parts: (1) What is college?; (2)
What is a university?; and (3) What is affiliation? The use of these
terms is somewhat unique to Indian education system, not exactly
comparable to education systems elsewhere. To understand the higher
education system in India, the following need to be explained.15 India’s
Central Government possesses an educational system supervised by
the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Under this ministry,
there are two departments: (1) Department of School Education and
Literacy and (2) Department of Higher Education. The first department
deals with primary and secondary levels of education. The second deals
11. “About Mizoram,” Mizoram Tourism, accessed February 14, 2014,
http://tourismmizoram.com/about-mizoram. The 2011 census states that there
are 772,809 Christians out of 888,573 people or about 87 percent of the Mizos
are Christian. Census India, “Population by Religious Communities,” Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General &
Census Commissioner India, accessed February 14, 2014, http://censusindia.
gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/C_Series/Population_by_religious_communities.htm.
12. The 2011 census states that there are 1,628,986 Christians out of
2,318,822 people or about 87 percent of the Mizos are Christian. Census India,
“Population by Religious Communities,” accessed February 14, 2014.
13. Census India, “Religion,” accessed February 14, 2014.
14. See appendix.
15. India is large therefore it is natural that there are many layers of government and agencies. As comparison, the American system can also be seen as
multi-layered with regional accreditation systems.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
with the tertiary level. If a university wishes to be recognized by the
Indian government, it needs to be registered with the University Grants
Commission (UGC). If it is a technical institution, it must be registered
under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Accreditation falls under a different jurisdiction from that of obtaining the central government’s recognition. The UGC and AICTE each
have an autonomous accrediting body.16 The National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC) is under the UGC, while the National
Board of Accreditation (NBA) works with AICTE for technological education.17 Originally, schools that taught general education were able to
ask for assessment and accreditation, but now evaluations are mandatory.18 Technical schools also must be accredited by law.19
In addition, the UGC superintends Open and Distance Learning
(ODL). The Distance Education Bureau (DEB) is under the UGC and is
currently overseeing distance education after the dissolution of the Distance Education Council (DEC) in 2012.20 Prior to its disbandment, the
accrediting body was called Open and Distance Education and Assessment and Accreditation Board.21 Different types of ODL institutions
include State Open Universities (SOUs), Correspondence Course Institutes (CCIs), and other institutions. They offer education programs that
are not restricted to a geographic location.22 Indira Gandhi National
Open University is the largest of such institutions, and it also manages
open universities at the national level.23 There are thirteen SOUs that
provide solely distance education.24
16. Ashoka Chandra, “Towards an Indian Accreditation System” in Quality Assurance in Higher Education, ed. Alma Craft (London: Falmer Press, 1992),
96.
17. Pratibha Khanna, “Transnational Education: Issues and Implications,”
in Education in India, ed. Shubha Tiwari (New Delhi: Atlantic, 2007), 82.
18. N. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India: Massification and Change,”
in Asian Universities: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges, ed. Philip G. Altbach & Toru Umakoshi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2004), 98.
19. Chandra, “Towards an Indian Accreditation System,” 94-95.
20. Distance Education Bureau, “Homepage,” University Grants Commission, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.ugc.ac.in/deb/index.html.
21. Colin Latchem and Insung Jung, Distance and Blended Learning in Asia
(New York: Routledge, 2010), 158.
22. Department of Higher Education, “Overview,” Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, under Higher Education, and Distance Learning, accessed January 14, 2014, http://mhrd.gov.in/overviewdl
23. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 96. For more information see
their website: www.ignou.ac.in.
24. Open universities (OUs) listed are Dr BR Ambedkar OU, Vardhman
India’s Higher Education
161
What Is College?
The word, college, can have different meanings in the English language in America and in Great Britain. In America, the terms “university” and “college” are used interchangeably, and both words refer to an
undergraduate, post-high school education. In Britain, “college” has a
range of meanings. They are deciphered by their contexts. For example,
the term “college” can refer to an undergraduate education, or a house
or a commune at a university—such as, the University of Oxford is composed of thirty-eight colleges and six permanent private halls.25 College
can also refer to a level of education for students who are generally 16
to 18 years old. In Britain, the level is called “Sixth Form College”, and
the system prepares students for their undergraduate major. Generally,
after two years of Sixth Form College, students take a standardized test
on a subject called “A-Level,” which is treated like the way Americans
perceive the SAT (Standardized Aptitude Test).
India adopted and contextualized the British education system,26
thus college also has a range of meanings. There is “pre-university college” (PUC), which refers to the higher secondary education stage
(namely the American equivalent of the eleventh and twelfth grades or
high school juniors and seniors). Students sometimes shorten this by
calling it, “college.” There is the more familiar usage (at least to Americans), where the UGC uses the word as a place where an undergraduate
degrees can be earned, or more specifically, a type of Higher Education Institution (HEI) like a university.27 However, unlike the American
understanding, college is not synonymous with university. It is a smaller
institution connected to a university.
In order to attend a tertiary-level institution, students must complete the pre-university college stage which is a part of secondary education. The Department of School Education and Literacy supervises
Mahaveer OU, Nalanda OU, Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra OU, Madhya
Pradesh BHOJ OU, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar OU, Karnataka State OU, Netaji Subhas OU, UP Rajarshi Tandon OU, Tamil Nadu OU, Uttaranchal OU,
Krishna Kanta Handique State OU. Department of Higher Education, “State
Open Universities,” Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government
of India, under Higher Education, under Distance Learning, accessed January
14, 2014, http://mhrd.gov.in/state_open_hindi.
25. “The Collegiate System Is at the Heart of Oxford University’s Success,” under Colleges, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.ox.ac.uk/colleges/
index.html.
26. India became independent from British rule on August 15, 1947.
27. “Eligibility Criteria for Institutions (w.e.f. 1st November 2013,” The
Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, accessed January 10,
2014, http://www.naac.gov.in/Eligibility_HEI.html.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
primary and secondary education. Compulsory and free elementary
education begins at the age of six and ends at the age of fourteen.28 Secondary education is highly encouraged but costs money. According to
India’s website, “The policy at present is to make secondary education
of good quality available, accessible and affordable to all young persons
in the age group of 14-18.”29 State-run schools are generally affordable
to most Indians. Private education costs more. In some ways, therefore,
secondary education is a luxury and a privilege to those who can afford
it (although most are able to afford it). Secondary education is divided
into two stages. The first stage belongs to the ninth and tenth grades.
After the tenth grade, students take the secondary school certificate
examination. If they pass, they can continue into the higher secondary
levels of the eleventh and twelfth grades.
Furthermore, higher secondary education is divided into two tracks.
Students in the first track follow “several vocational, technical, and paraprofessional courses leading to a variety of certificates and diplomas.”30
This first track lasts from one to three years, depending on the program.
Only the three-year polytechnic education is considered as “higher education” if it leads to a diploma.31 However, the diploma in electronics, for
example, is not equal to a bachelor’s degree.32
The “plus two” (+2) track is required for students to complete if
they want to go to university. According to N. Jayaram, the second track
is offered in “three different types of educational settings: colleges offering first-degree courses, junior colleges offering this course exclusively,
and some schools.”33 The state organizes this level of education.34
There are several different ways to express the last level: the second
stage, higher or senior secondary education, pre-university college
(PUC), and “plus two.” Thus, the education system consists of a framework where “[p]rimary and secondary education is ten years in dura28. Most children start at the age of 5 years.
29. Department of School Education & Literacy, “Overview,” Ministry of
Human Resource Development, Government of India, under Secondary Education, accessed January 10, 2014, http://mhrd.gov.in/secondaryedu.
30. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88. Tracks include math,
science, economic/commerce, and vocational.
31. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
32. This situation may become complicated if a student enters theological
college after completing the tenth grade. Normally, the student will take another
two years to earn a diploma in theology and then enter the BTh program possibly as a second year student. The number of years of the student to earn a BTh
thus depends on the school (2 or 3 years).
33. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
34. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
India’s Higher Education
163
tion, followed by two years of senior secondary education (equivalent
to completion of senior high school graduation in the United States).”35
Students who successively complete the plus-two stage can move on
to earn a bachelor’s degree after attending their undergraduate school.
A general bachelor’s degree in India usually lasts for three years. This
contrasts with the American model, where it usually takes four years to
finish. The other type of bachelor’s degree is professional. The completion time ranges according to each program. For example, medicine and
science take 5.5 years while nursing takes three years to complete.36 A
master’s degree would take two to three years to complete depending
on the program.37 For example, an MA takes usually two years while an
MBA takes three years to complete.
Having said the above, the word, college, has sundry meanings
from pre-university college to a college affiliated to a university—the
latter will be explained under the affiliation section. At Torch Trinity
Graduate University (TTGU), we require our applications to list their
undergraduate and graduate schools only and forego listing their secondary education even if it contained pre-university courses. Because
Koreans, Japanese, and Americans are more familiar with the expression,
“post-high school,” we added the qualification of “after the 12th grade”
on our application to prevent confusions. 38
What Is a University?
The Central Government and the states are responsible for higher
education. The Central Government uses the University Grants Commission (UGC) to develop and maintain the general educational system
in India. The UGC approves institutions that possess higher education as a university or college. This is separate from accreditation. The
UGC established the National Assessment and Accreditation Council
(NAAC) to act autonomously to accredit institutions and assess their
quality in traditional settings. In terms of accreditation, if the school is
not listed under the UGC, then they cannot be accredited by the NAAC.
In addition, not every school registered with the UGC is accredited by
the NAAC; they must meet NAAC standards for higher education. Non35. Ujjaini Sahasrabudhe and Swetha Muthanna, “Making Sense of Accreditation for Higher Education Institutions in India,” International Education
Research Foundation, accessed January 15, 2014, http://ierf.org/pdf/Nafsa09_
handout.pdf.
36. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
37. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
38. We may also need to footnote it to also say, “that is, after high school
or university-level institutions or higher educational institutions, etc. ”
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
accredited institutions as a consequence cannot receive government
grants.39
Currently, the UGC vaunts a 27 percent increase in the number of
institutions during the past sixty years.
The sector boasts of 42 Central universities, 243 State universities, 53
State Private universities, 130 Deemed universities, 33 Institutions of
National Importance (established under Acts of Parliament) and five Institutions (established under various State legislations). The number of
colleges has also registered manifold increase with just 578 in 1950 growing to be more than 30,000 in 2011.40
Already from the above there are several terms that will appear unfamiliar to many North American and Korean educators. The following
comes from the government’s website and is copied verbatim.
Central University:
A university established or incorporated by
a Central Act.
State University:
A university established or incorporated by
a Provincial Act or by a State Act.
Private University:
A university established through a State/
Central Act by a sponsoring body viz.
A Society registered under the Societies
Registration Act 1860, or any other corresponding law for the time being in force
in a State or a Public Trust or Company
registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.
Deemed-to-be
University:
An Institution Deemed to be University,
commonly known as Deemed University,
refers to a high-performing institution,
which has so declared by Central Government under Section 3 of the University
Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956.
Institution of National An Institution established by Act of ParliaImportance:
ment and declared as Institution of National Importance.
39. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 89.
40. Department of School Education & Literacy, “Overview,” Ministry of
Human Resource Development, Government of India, under Higher Education,
accessed January 10, 2014, http://mhrd.gov.in/overview_uni_higher_english.
India’s Higher Education
165
Institution under State An Institution established or incorporated
Legislature Act:
by State Legislature State Legislature Act:
Act.
The NAAC works within the above framework. They assess and
accredit the above institutions according to their “quality status.”41 After
assessment, they assign letter grades to each school: A, B, C, and D. A,
B, and C lead to accreditation with A being “very good”. If a school
earns a D, it is considered “unsatisfactory” and a school with this letter
grade is not accredited.42 In addition, “The NAAC accreditation does
not cover distance education units of HEIs.”43 In other words, it appears
that the NAAC’s grade refers to the education given on campus. One
can also check an accreditation status of a school online via the NAAC’s
website: www.naac.gov.in.44
In reality, most Christian schools are not registered. The UGC
generally avoids theological colleges and seminaries along with other
religions such as Hindu and Muslim institutions. Gnanaraj points out
that the “focus of religious education in Indian Universities is secular in
nature and aims to promote moral and ethical teachings”45 over evangelical beliefs which are not considered by the government. This clearly
puts Bible and theological colleges and seminaries at a disadvantage.
Having said that, there are a few exceptions that the UGC have
recently listed, and even fewer have accreditation. For example, Martin
Luther’s Christian University (MLCU) is listed with the UGC since
2005 but is not accredited by the NAAC.46 The relationship of how these
Christian schools were integrated and accredited needs to be examined
further as another research article. Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agri41. “Rationale,” The Director, National Assessment and Accreditation
Council, January 11, 2014, http://www.naac.gov.in/assessment_accreditation.
html.
42. “Grading,” The Director, National Assessment and Accreditation
Council, accessed January 11, 2014, http://www.naac.gov.in/grading.html.
43. “Eligibility Criteria for Institutions (w.e.f. 1st November 2013),” The
Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, accessed January 11,
2014, http://www.naac.gov.in/Eligibility_HEI.html.
44. A direct link can be found here (accessed January 15, 2014): http://
web5.kar.nic.in/naacloi_new/
NAAC_allcycles_accrlist.aspx.
45. Gnanaraj, “Current Trends in Evangelical Theological Education in India,” Journal of NATA 2, no. 1 (May 2012): 60.
46. “MLCU Act,” Martin Luther Christian University, February 10, 2014,
http://www.mlcuniv.in/index.php?’option=com_content&view=article&id=74
&Itemid=134. See also Gnanaraj, “Current Trends,” 59-60.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
culture, Technology & Sciences (SHIATS), for example, has a Protestant
background and is a school that is accredited with the NAAC.47 As a
Deemed University, it “is offering ‘Theology’ as an academic discipline .
. . . The University as a minority institution, may conduct its courses in
‘Theology’ in whatever mode it wants to, as it has the right to do so.”48
However, its program is not as highly sought after by the larger Christian
community. We have yet to receive a student applying to our school
from SHIATS. Seminaries affiliated to Serampore or accredited by ATA
currently are valued more among Indian churches.
There is general criticism, according to some evangelicals, that
many divinity faculties or Christian studies programs in well-established
universities teach Christian subjects in a secular perspective or it is heavily Roman Catholic in orientation. In the case of Madras University, the
leadership of Christian Studies may appear too secular or postmodern
for evangelical pastors to recommend to their congregation members for
education.49
What Is Affiliation?
Affiliated is another tricky word. In its simplest sense, when one
school is affiliated with another school, it usually means that a larger
school shares resources with a smaller school in an official capacity such
as its library. In some cases, academic collaboration in projects may
occur. Legally, the schools operate independently. Thus, to put the word
“affiliated to” on a diploma may appear odd for someone who is unfamiliar with the Indian system; it invites questions on the validity of the
degree: Why bother to state an affiliation on a diploma if both schools
are accredited unless one of them is not properly accredited?
Jayaram explains that the affiliation system began in the midnineteenth century. Using the University of London as a model, the
47. For example, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology
and Sciences (SHIATS) is listed under the UGC as a Deemed-to-be-University.
It was accredited by the NAAC in 2005 and again in 2013. As a Deemed-to-beUniversity, it is not under the AICTE. It has a faculty of theology. “About Us,”
Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, accessed
February 10, 2014, http://shiats.edu.in/aboutus.asp. See Gnanaraj, “Current
Trends,” 59-60.
48. “Gospel & Plough School of Theology,” Sam Higginbottom Institute
of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, accessed February 14, 2014, http://
shiatsmail.edu.in/webwapp/faculty/Colleges/coll_Theology.asp
49. G. Patrick (or Patrick Gnanapragasam) is the only faculty member
listed in the Christian Studies Department. He co-edited the following book
with Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza: Negotiating Border: Theological Explorations in
the Global Era (Delhi: ISPCK, 2008).
India’s Higher Education
167
first three universities—Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras—became “pioneer universities,” which “consisted largely of affiliating and examining
bodies with very little intellectual life of their own.” 50 The university
system in India, for the most part, follows this arrangement:
[T]he largest number of Indian universities belongs to the affiliating type.
They have university departments that provide instruction at the post
graduate level and undertake research. A large number of colleges offering first-degree-level education are affiliate to these universities. A major
task of such universities is to oversee the academic standards of affiliated
colleges.51
Institutions and colleges are affiliated to universities. India considers
them as smaller educational establishments to be linked to something
bigger. They have a specific role in relation to the university.
In India, colleges with affiliations may be accredited. For example, Kristu Jayanti College is affiliated to Bangalore University. Both
are accredited by the NAAC. Having said that, there is danger among
private universities which the UGC warns the public about. Private universities, unlike the other types of universities, cannot create affiliated
colleges:52
[S]ome of the State Private Universities have affiliated colleges and
started off-campus centre(s) in violation of the UGC (Establishment of
and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulation, 2003
and against the judgment of Honorable Supreme Court in case of Prof.
Yash Pal & Others vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Others. Some of these
Universities are running these Centres on franchising basis also which is
not allowed.53
Here it is important to note that the Indian government does not see the
affiliation system as franchising although when a private university does
franchise, it is illegal. How the UGC define franchise, and differentiate
50. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 86.
51. Jayaram, “Higher Education in India,” 88.
52. For example, the University of Calcutta is an Autonomous University
(not Private University). It has affiliated colleges in West Bengal such as St.
Xavier College. See “Status List of Approved 374 Autonomous Colleges under
the UGC Scheme of ‘Autonomous College’ as on 05.04.2011,” 27, accessed January 13, 2014, http://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/colleges/374autocolleges_april11.
pdf.
53. University Grants Commission, “Private Universities,” University
Grants Commission, accessed January 13, 2014, http://www.ugc.ac.in/
privatuniversity.aspx.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
it from affiliation, is not explained online. Rather, the website continues
to state that
Private Universities cannot affiliate an institution/college. They cannot
establish off campus centre(s) beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the
concerned State. However, they can establish off-campus centre(s) within the concerned State after their existence of five years and with the
prior approval of the University Grants Commission. So far, UGC has
not approved any off campus centre(s) of any Private University. 54
In other words, newer institutions cannot attach themselves to a UGCapproved private university without UGC permission. The UGC can
approve the school as long as the newer institution meets its criteria.
In light of all these qualifications, off-campus centers have yet to be
approved.
Christian Higher Education
Christian schools are even more difficult to assess, especially evangelical institutions, because they lack a common accreditation system
outside the UGC. There are two accrediting organizations that TTGU is
familiar with but neither is recognized by any government: Asia Theological Association (ATA) and the Board of Theological Education of the
Senate of Serampore College (BTESSC). C. Barnabas sees these accrediting bodies in eras:
In the first era, the Senate of Serampore colleges prepared pastors, administrators and theological educators for the mainstream churches. In
the second era, Asia Theological Association (ATA) started accrediting
the evangelical institutions, which trained pastors, administrators, missionaries and evangelists for the evangelical churches and missions. These
two accrediting agencies continue to train people for churches and missions even now.55
In other words, the Senate of Serampore was established to set a standard in theological education in 1918. Fifty years later, evangelicals felt
the need to participate in their own association thus they joined ATA
54. University Grants Commission, “Private Universities,” University
Grants Commission, accessed January 13, 2014, http://www.ugc.ac.in/
privatuniversity.aspx.
55. A third body, Indian Institute of Missiology (IIM), may be added if we
take C. Barnabas’ understanding of three eras of Christian education. To note,
he is also the Executive Director of IIM. I did not add this group here because we
have yet to see applicants with IIM backgrounds. See C. Barnabas, “The Status
of Missiological Education in the Missionary Training Centres of Indian Insti-
India’s Higher Education
169
(some schools such as Union Bible Seminary in Pune, Maharashtra are
connected to both). Though there are many other accrediting bodies,
these are the most well-known.56
The two groups are often pitted against each other: ATA as evangelical is accountable to the World Evangelical Fellowship and the BTESSC
as ecumenical is accountable to the World Council of Churches. Siga
Arles calls this debate “not essentially innate to the Indian Christian
setting . . . [but] rather an alien dichotomy that is superimposed on the
Christian community in India.”57 Despite the opinions of academics,
this debate for our current purposes is not urgent for general admissions.
Instead, the two bodies will be explained at some length in order to discuss issues that complicate the admissions process and some palliative
measures will be offered to help alleviate such difficulties.
Asia Theological Association
ATA is the largest of these accrediting bodies as an association of
theological institutions throughout Asia (and some beyond). Their purpose is to expand the evangelical faith through educational institutions
by “serving its members in the development of evangelical biblical theology by strengthening interaction, enhancing scholarship, promoting academic excellence,”58 and the list continues. In reality, when it was created
in 1970, there was a need for a forum to discuss evangelical theological
education in Asia especially in countries where Christian education was
small, marginalized, or simply outlawed. Today, the organization boasts
of having 212 members from twenty-seven countries.59
Torch Trinity Graduate University is a member school in ATA.
Although we are fully accredited by the Korean government’s Ministry of Education, we also participate in ATA because it connects us to
the greater evangelical world. TTGU’s current president, David Sangtute of Missiology,” in Missiological Education: Theological Integration and Contextual
Implications, eds. Ebenezer D. Dasan and Frampton F. Fox, Papers from the 13th
CMS Consultation (Delhi: ISPCK, 2009), 144.
56. For a longer list of current accrediting bodies, see Gnanaraj, “Current
Trends,” 58.
57. Siga Arles, Missiological Education: An Indian Exploration, Studies in the
Gospel Interface with Indian Contexts (Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 2006), 407ff.
58. “About: What is ATA,” Asia Theological Association, accessed January
14, 2014, http://www.ataasia.com/about.
59. “ATA Members,” Asia Theological Association, accessed January 14,
2014, http://www.ataasia.com/ata-members. Having said that, there is a discrepancy regarding the number of ATA accredited Indian schools online between the
main body and ATA India’s website.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
Bok Kim, served actively at one point as ATA’s board member and
chairman.60 TTGU faculty has consistently and strongly supported the
school’s participation since its establishment because of ATA’s vast net
which reaches the other side of Asia. Through ATA, TTGU is able to
dialog with other evangelicals outside Korea. We, TTGU, can work with
students coming from ATA-accredited schools and offer them a strong
and competitive learning environment through the standards set by
the Korean government. By law, each faculty member must possess a
government-accredited doctorate to teach in Korean higher education
institutions.61 Therefore, our school, like many other fully accredited
universities on the Korean peninsula, has a 100 percent doctoral faculty.
Every member of our faculty has earned a doctorate from a government recognized university from the United States, United Kingdom,
Canada, or Korea. These reasons and more make TTGU attractive to
international students in Asia.
Unfortunately, there are more non-government accredited schools
in ATA than accredited. This cannot be helped. Asia still grapples with
issues of diversity and Christians are very much oppressed in many
countries, even in countries where the freedom of religion exists such
as India. Here, ATA agents are able to visit schools in these regions and
assess their programs for ATA accreditation.
With ATA India, there are two issues that are noteworthy for those
unfamiliar with India’s educational context: affiliation and the two-year
MDiv. There are two types of ATA membership: accredited and associate. Accredited members have programs which have been approved
by the ATA. Associate members are not accredited but are serving as
theological schools in their localities.62 They are usually on their way to
becoming accredited members. In ATA India, which is currently working away from ATA’s basic membership arrangement, there is one more
type: affiliated. According to ATA India’s website, these are “study centres” and are not accredited by the ATA but are connected to accredited
schools.63
60. “President’s Brief Bio,” Torch Trinity Graduate University, under
About, under President, under Biography, accessed February 14, 2014, http://
www.ttgu.ac.kr/.
61. English instructors, those who teach English to students, are not required by law to hold PhDs as exceptions.
62. “ATA Members,” Asia Theological Association, accessed February 7,
2014, http://www.ataasia.com/ata-members.
63. “Members,” Asia Theological Association (India), accessed February
7, 2014, http://www.ataindia.org/
members.php?lid=5. The problem here is the word, “study centre”. ATA
India should clarify what this means. Diplomas from schools affiliated with
India’s Higher Education
171
Our school accepts students who come from ATA-accredited
schools; students who come from ATA affiliated institutions are not processed at TTGU unless they have other qualifications that meet school
standards.64 However, even then, not all ATA India-accredited programs
are accepted. In this case, MDivs that are two years in length are not
seen as equivalent to the three-year MDiv degrees;65 BTh graduates who
move on to earn two-year MDivs (or BDs in Serampore’s case) are not
qualified to apply to our ThM programs unless other qualifications are
met.66
One of ATA India’s best qualities is its global network and its ability to communicate with other ATA seminaries, universities, and colleges outside the country. Domestically, in contrast, it has yet to match
the historical and cultural weight of Serampore supported by mainline
churches throughout India. The relationship between these two bodies
continues to undergo discussion.
The Senate of Serampore College
What’s in a Name?
There are three organizations to consider containing the name of
Serampore: “Serampore College, Hooghly,” the “Senate of Serampore
College (University)” (SSC), and the “Board of Theological Education
of the Senate of Serampore College” (BTESSC). In short, Serampore
College, or more simply, Serampore, can refer to any of these three
bodies or all of them together depending on the context.
For the record, “Serampore College, Hooghly” is classified as a
Non-Government College under the UGC, accredited by the NAAC,
and affiliated with the University of Calcutta.67 This differs from the
“Senate of Serampore College (University)” (SSC). The SSC states that
ATA India schools do not present themselves as study centres but a theological
school. See following footnote.
64. For example, a 2011 MDiv diploma from Asia Evangelical College &
Seminary in Kathmandu, Nepal, states that it is “Affiliated with Asia Evangelical College & Seminary, Bangalore, India (ATA)”. This applicant could not be
processed for the ThM program.
65. In India, BD earners are qualified to apply to the MTh program.
66. For example, Restoration Theological College’s MDiv program is accredited by ATA India. It offers an MDiv in two years if a student has a BTh. See
“Master of Divinity (M.Div [sic]),” Restoration Theological College, accessed
April 4, 2014, http://www.rtcindia.org/degree-programs/master-of-divinity.html.
67. “Colleges under Section 2 (f)& [sic, space] 12(B) of the UGC Act of
1956,” University Grants Commission, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.
ugc.ac.in/recog_College.aspx.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
it has the status as a university (although it is not registered under the
UGC—to be discussed later).68 The SSC sets the curriculum in affiliated schools. The accrediting organization for theological programs is
the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore College
(BTESSC). Describing the three institutions seems easy enough but in
practice they are intertwined. This complicates matters. A typical bachelor of divinity diploma has been transcribed below
Serampore College || Founded by Carey, Marchman and Ward, 1818 ||
Incorporated by Royal Charter, 1827 and || Bengal Act IV of 1918, as
modified || upto [sic] 1997 by Govt. of || West Bengal || [school emblem] || This is to Certify || that [underline to write in graduate’s name]
who has completed all the requirements || laid down by the Senate of
Serampore College || at [underline for affiliated seminary name] as an
Internal student and passed the prescribed || Examinations in the year
[underline for year] in [underline for grade] Class is awarded the Degree
of || Bachelor of Divinity || [underline for signature] [underline for signature] [underline for signature] || Registrar of the Senate President of
the Senate Master of the College || Serampore || Date
The top of the certificate states “Serampore College” but the
middle section states that the Senate of Serampore College is conferring the degree despite the fact that the student was attending another
seminary such as Eastern Theological College in Jorhat, Assam or John
Roberts Theological Seminary in Shillong, Meghalaya. This invites further questions such as who is conferring the degree; which seminary did
the student attend; did the graduate attend the affiliated seminary or
the Senate of Serampore or Serampore College? Or more particularly, on
our applications, when students write in institutions from where they
have graduated, which institution do they write? In practice, students
write one or the other: the name of the school they physically attended
while others write Serampore. How our admissions office understand
this complexity is that students have earned one degree from two conferring institutions: the SSC and the school they physically attended,
which is one of the fifty or so schools affiliated to the SSC. However,
this too is unclear as some may be tempted to argue that they have two
68. “The Senate of Serampore College was constituted to have uniform
theological training for Christian Ministry for the Protestant and Orthodox
Churches of the country and neighboring countries through the many Seminaries affiliated to the College (University) by the Bengal Act No. IV of 1918.”
Serampore College, “History: A Brief Historical & Geographical Sketch,” Serampore College, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.seramporecollege.org/
theology/116-2/.
India’s Higher Education
173
degrees—albeit the same kind (e.g. BD)—given by two different schools
earned at the same time.
Although knowing the history of the SSC may not help reviewers
categorize it, we can understand the dilemma of its current state since
it is not registered under the UGC. The creation of Serampore College
was one of the great achievements founded by the father of modern
Protestant missions, William Carey, and his partners: Joshua Marshman
and William Ward. Overtime, the college expanded to possess several
disciplines which were eventually split into two camps: (1) Christian
theology and (2) liberal arts, science, and commerce. Each camp took
a life of its own. Serampore College’s second side, currently called the
Arts-Science-Commerce (ASC) Departments, became affiliated to the
University of Calcutta. It is this part of Serampore that is accredited by
the NAAC up to the bachelor’s degree.
The Theology Department, in contrast, is not accredited by the
NAAC or listed under the UGC. Instead, the Senate of Serampore College (University) oversees its curriculum. Under the current framework
created by the UGC concerning the types of universities, the SSC does
not fit in. Indeed, the UGC felt that “it was not necessary to deem it
to be a University,” because it “was functioning as a University in the
Faculty of Divinity under a Bengal legislation (Act No. IV of 1918).”69
With this trellis, the divinity school cannot be recognized by the NAAC
because it is not under the UGC yet it is at the same time recognized by
it without registration.
Some people may consider this outside status a blessing. Jesudason
Baskar Jeyaraj believes that Serampore’s autonomy should be seen as a
form of “freedom” to affiliate seminaries which confer BTh, BD, MTh,
and PhD; they move away from UGC restrictions and funding.70 Thus,
according to Jeyaraj, it has free reign and is neither under the authority
of the UGC nor does it need to meet its standards. Though the SSC
has the authority to award degrees and is a legal university, it does not
change the fact that they are not accredited by the NAAC. Furthermore,
because it is not listed as a university under the UGC, potential applicants may believe that it is a “Fake University” even though it is not
69. “University
Grants
Commission
and
Serampore
College
(University),” Senate of Serampore College, accessed January 15, 2014, http://
senateofseramporecollege.edu.in/ugc-serampore-college.html.
70. Jesudason Baskar Jeyaraj, “National Building with the People of Other
Faiths: A Need for New Models of Missiological Education,” in Missiological
Education: Theological Integration and Contextual Implications, eds. Ebenezer D.
Dasan and Frampton F. Fox, Papers from the 13th CMS Consultation (Delhi:
ISPCK, 2009), 188.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
listed as such.71 It takes extra work on the part of the SSC to vindicate
its status which they do on their website. However, explanations do not
end there.
The SSC functions in a way that will seem unfamiliar. Depending
on which side of the debate a person takes, the system is usually either
misunderstood or controversial (or worse). Some people argue that it
is simply modeling a university system of “affiliating colleges, supplying the curriculum, conducting the exams and conferring the degrees”72
across India and all the way to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. These
affiliated seminaries at first appear like modern-day satellite campuses.
However, not only do they predate them, they do not share the same
name. Affiliated institutions are more like independent institutions
linked by a given-and-take shared curriculum and examination set by
the SSC.
Thus its history and how it functions need to be examined more
carefully. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
there was a need to create a standard system of theological education
throughout India. A council was created in 1918 whose body consisted
of representatives from different traditions.73 A “common accrediting
body”74 was formed:
The Senate of Serampore College was constituted to have uniform theological training for Christian Ministry for the Protestant and Orthodox
Churches of the country and neighboring countries through the many
Seminaries affiliated to the College (University) by the Bengal Act No.
IV of 1918. Since then, the College began to affiliate other colleges and
seminaries to offer theological degrees and became a University for theological education in South-East Asia.75
In other words, the SSC as an organization set courses and examinations for other schools to follow and take. The SSC was declared to be
a university under the Bengal Act of 1918 which allowed it to affiliate
71. “Fake Universities,” University Grants Commission, accessed January
17, 2014, http://www.ugc.ac.in/page/Fake-Universities.aspx.
72. Jeyaraj, “National Building, 188.
73. “History: A Brief Historical & Geographical Sketch,” Serampore
College, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.seramporecollege.org/theology/
116-2/.
74. “A Brief History,” Serampore College: Arts Science Commerce Department, accessed January 15, 2014, http://www.seramporecollege.org/arts-sciencecommerce/history.
75. “History: A Brief Historical & Geographical Sketch,” Serampore
College, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.seramporecollege.org/theology/116-2/.
India’s Higher Education
175
institutions and “grant them the same privileges as to those studying
at the College in Serampore.”76 The BTESSC was established when the
SSC and the Board of Theological Education (BTE) in 1975 united.77
Affiliation with the SSC means that the Senate controls the curriculum of affiliated colleges. Roger Gaikwad, while explaining the history
of the SSC, states that when seminaries are affiliated, they
. . . follow the rules, regulations and curricula of the SSC. These institutions enjoy a semi-autonomous status having the provision to conduct
examinations in a certain number of subjects as well as the provision to
offer special contextually related papers (whose syllabi, however, have to
be approved beforehand by the SSC).78
Indeed, the SSC takes pride in how it strictly oversees the affiliation program. Arles states that Serampore has contributed much to the
development of Christian ministry in India by providing an umbrella
structure as the degree granting authority. It attempts to unify the theological focus of the colleges with a common curriculum, provides
for common theological research and interaction among educators
and evaluates the colleges for excellence.79
However, Mark Laing scrutinizes that the SSC lacks the flexibility
to move quickly to address new trends.
Senate affiliation means that the syllabus offered is centrally determined,
although beyond the essential core courses, colleges can offer a range of
optional courses, based on the strengths and competencies of the individual colleges. There are a few colleges, like Union Biblical Seminary,
which have dual accreditation. Central control under Senate ensures the
maintenance of good academic practice in colleges and the standardisation of the quality of the BD degree between affiliated colleges. However,
this top-down hierarchy, with the centralisation of control by the Senate,
can also make the Senate an unwieldy behemoth and the possibility of
76. “Affiliation to Serampore College (University)” Senate of Serampore
College (University), January 15, 20014, http://senateofseramporecollege.edu.
in/affiliation-serampore-college.html.
77. Melanchthon, “Graduate Biblical Studies in India,” 120.
78. Roger Gaikwad, “The Extension Programme of the Senate of Serampore College,” in Diversified Theological Education: Equipping All God’s People, ed.
Ross Kinsler (Pasadena: William Carey International University Press, 2008),
92. In the first part of this chapter, he is not dealing with an extension program
but rather the history of the SSC.
79. Arles, Missiological Education, 7.
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Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
radical change to the syllabus conceptually improbably and impossible
to execute.80
Laing continues to criticize the SSC that it is “not explicit about the
organising rationale for the BD.”81
Despite the questions and debates that arise from the SSC affiliation system, the reality is that it is the oldest, and in the eyes of some
Indian Christians, a more prestigious form of Protestant theological education in India. When students graduate from their seminary, they also
graduate from the SSC. Jeyaraj calls the SSC as “the key affiliating body
of more than 50 theological colleges in India and well recognized by the
mainline churches.”82
In addition, though the SSC is not under the UGC, it is wellreceived in the government of the north-eastern part of India. Wati
Longchar states that for this geographical context that
Unlike the other parts of India, theological education is well recognized
by the Government, the church and society. Some theological colleges
receive indirect grant for infra-structure development, whereas others
receive indirect support. Students from Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya
and Mizoram receive government scholarship. In Nagaland, Serampore
degrees are recognized for employment in State Services. Nagaland University (a Central University) recognizes M.Th [sic] degree for pursuing Ph.D [sic] study.83
Thus, a degree from the SSC is favorable among mainline churches and
can be recognized at a regional government level.
Inquiries
Other Issues
There are other issues that also need to be dealt with. Firstly, there
are questions concerning perspectives and value judgment. For example,
80. Mark Laing, “Recovering Missiological Ecclesiology in Theological
Education,” in Missiological Education: Theological Integration and Contextual Implications, eds. Ebenezer D. Dasan and Frampton F. Fox, Papers from the 13th CMS
Consultation (Delhi: ISPCK, 2009), 48.
81. Laing, “Recovering Missiological Ecclesiology,” 48.
82. Jeyaraj, “National Building,” 188.
83. Wati Longchar, “India: The Development of Theological Education
in North East India,” in Training to Be Ministers in Asia—Contextualizing Theological Education in Multi-Faith Contexts: Historical, Contextual and Theological Perspectives from Different Asian Countries, ed. Dietrich Werner (Tainan, Taiwan: PTCA,
2012), 154.
India’s Higher Education
177
from an educational perspective, there is the question of how should we
see affiliation in light of India’s higher education historical development
and assess its value especially from a global perspective. From a religiopolitical perspective, we need to consider the Central Government’s
commitment to remain secular and thus by doing so marginalizing religious studies (for Christians, theological studies). The result is that such
process impacts the Christian people and their education. Christians
will find it more difficult to integrate into society’s mainstream. From a
theological-educational perspective, SSC’s importance and value needs
to be assessed as well not only in terms of how they affiliate schools
but also on how their system is compatible to our educational framework.84 From a geographical perspective, it would be interesting to see
how many Indian schools provide Christian education not just in India
but for neighboring countries such as Nepal and Myanmar.85
Therefore, secondly, compatibility becomes an important issue,
not just for the SSC but also for others like it. There are compatibility
issues with the British and American systems of theological education
that need to be ironed out. How can we reconcile an English form of
education to an American style of earning degrees in Christian studies?
Already mentioned was that India’s two-year BD and MDiv that follow
after the BTh and that at our school, they are not considered equal to a
three-year MDiv unless other qualifications are met.86 These questions
84. A more personal concern is how Indian students can better prepare
themselves for an education outside the affiliation system or how our school
can help them acclimate to our system. I speak from my own experience with
Indian students.
85. This question was raised by Miyon Chung, who is teaching at Morling
College in Australia.
86. For the record, British universities do not have a standard approach to
the BD. Oxford, for example is no longer offering the degree. See “Special Regulations for the Degree of Bachelor of Divinity,” Oxford University, under Central
Administration, under Examination Regulation, under Special Regulations for
the Degree of Bachelor of Divinity, accessed April 4, 2014, http://www.admin.
ox.ac.uk/examregs/31-68_S_R_Degree_of_Bachelor_of_Divinity. Whereas in
Scotland, a BD is sometimes seen as a second bachelor’s level degree but is three
or four years in length (not two years). For example, St Andrews’ BD is a threeyear program for those who already have a degree in another subject. “Courses Available,” School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, accessed April 4,
2014, http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/admissions/ug/courses/. “Bachelor of
Divinity,” University of Edinburgh, accessed April 4, 2014, http://www.ed.ac.
uk/schools-departments/divinity/studying/undergraduates/degree-programmes/
bachelor-divinity.
178
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
demand further investigation and explication at the administrative level
beyond the simple information previously explained above.87
There is a third matter. Sometimes a national government has rules
and regulations regarding international admittance—some of which
are difficult to apply for various reasons. In Korea, for example, on one
level, the Ministry of Education favors students with a four-year bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent) for graduate school admittance. Obviously, a strict application of “four-year” would exclude a large portion
of the English-speaking world that possesses a three-year bachelor’s
degree from a British or British-type university or college. On another
level, the Korean Ministry of Education wants students coming from
accredited institutions. We have accepted many students from the West
from government-accredited Christian schools such as Biola University
in La Mirada, California. However, this is nearly impossible for people
coming from Asia where Christianity is marginalized (or even outlawed)
by a national government.88 Other assessment is necessary especially in
light of our school’s purpose which is to reach the Majority World. Our
school administration must handle these issues delicately because we are
a government-accredited graduate university.
For further research on the Indian education system, a glossary of
terms needs to be created. Besides the words, college and affiliation,
there are many other terms which are thrown in conversation but have
different meanings such as extension and distance education and study
centers. After establishing terms and definitions, it would be ideal if
someone can map out relationships between larger and smaller schools
(such as colleges, study centers, and institutions) in the Indian context
to help foreigners understand the education system better.
Admissions
For now, there are at least four practical solutions that our school
can change on our applications to determine the status of a school’s
accreditation. The first was already mentioned: add “after the 12th
grade” to “post-high school.” The goal is to have applicants to list all
the institutions they attended which are considered as higher education and accommodate as many applicants with different backgrounds
as possible.
87. In addition, there are other issues because ATA India also approves
MDiv programs which are two years in length whereas our school expects MDiv
programs to be three years in length. Languages are also problematic from Greek,
Hebrew, and sometimes the English language.
88. At this point, I am referring to other countries not just India.
India’s Higher Education
179
The second solution is to create an extra affiliation column next to
schools they attended. Sometimes, new admissions reviewers are confused. We ask applicants to send us copies of their degrees with their
applications. The copies sometimes did not reflect what they wrote
in their applications. Adding the extra affiliation column next to the
attended school will alleviate confusion to let reviewers know the school
is affiliate to Serampore.
Thirdly, we need to use government-run online resources when
available for secular degrees. The NAAC’s online database of accredited
universities will cover most universities in question. If it is a technical
institution, one can check India’s list of technical schools on the AICTE
website. Open and distance learning can be found online as well. Three
helpful websites are listed below:
NAAC www.naac.gov.in89
AICTEwww.aicte-india.org90
ODLwww.ugc.ac.in91
Finally, we need to ask students to enter the full addresses of their
institutions. Diplomas usually state the name of the institution, degree
conferred, date of graduation, and the graduate’s name. The location of
the school is rarely on a diploma. If students were to enter the addresses
of their schools, this will allow our admissions office to check on the
accreditation status online. The NAAC’s website requires not just the
name of the institution but also the type of institution (university or
college) and region (such as West Bengal or Assam).
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to understand India’s tertiary education and accreditation systems for Christian education. Most Christian
schools at the tertiary level have yet to be registered and accredited by
the government, which is a subject of great interest for graduate schools
outside the country like Korea. In India, the relationship between the
89. A direct link can be found here (accessed January 15, 2014): http://
web5.kar.nic.in/naacloi_new/NAAC_allcycles_accrlist.aspx.
90. A recent copy of approved institutions can be found here (accessed
January 15, 2014): http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/12_13_Approved_Institutes_Dec_19_2012.pdf.
91. A direct link can be found here (accessed January 15, 2014): https://
docs.google.com/a/ttgu.ac.kr/forms/d/1DV_SUcCQP0co8nKgF7NF3cDrTgBDj3zyWlq5WvR7LS0/viewform.
180
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
Central Government and schools remains ambiguous perhaps due to
lack of governmental relegations over religious education. Many questions arise from this unclear relationship. A vast majority of theological
programs are not listed by the UGC and thus unable to be accredited by
the NAAC. Although Christianity is legal, it appears to have been marginalized (albeit with other religions) by the government educationally.
The second issue is global compatibility which is currently being
discussed between ATA and the SSC. They are the two largest accrediting (ATA) and affiliating (Serampore) bodies in India. However, despite
the respect they have from the indigenous churches, if the colleges in
India fail to produce quality students “bridge” programs may need to be
created for their transition into higher degrees. For example, if a student
is lacking sufficient level of biblical languages or English writing skills,
he or she may have to stay one more year to catch up. Many Western
schools have implemented a yearlong program to help foreign students
prepare for university or graduate school education.92
For admission personnel at TTGU, they need to (1) be aware
that educational terminologies such as “college” and “high school” can
vary according to different geographical locations; (2) ask for schools’
addresses to review their accreditation status; (3) make use of government internet sites to verify accreditation; and (4) create more suitable
applications forms that allows the applicant to describe the complex
educational background of countries such as India. As a final note, there
is a need to develop internal guidelines, which are based on a common
knowledge of global education and international admissions, for TTGU
personnel involved in international admission.
92. For example, the University of St Andrews has a Foundation Year
Programme “for international students who do not have the academic or language qualifications that the University requires for direct entry to a degree programme.” See “Frequently Asked Questions,” University of St Andrews, under
English Language Teaching, accessed February 14, 2014, http://www.st-andrews.
ac.uk/elt/foundation/frequentlyaskedquestions/.
181
India’s Higher Education
Appendix:
Christian Population from India’s 2011 Census93
Region & Union Territories
Number of
Christians
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Daman & Diu
Delhi
Goa
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu & Kashmir
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Orissa
Pondicherry
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu
Tripura
77,178
1,181,917
205,548
986,589
53,137
7,627
401,035
6,058
3,362
130,319
359,568
284,092
27,185
7,687
20,299
1,093,382
1,009,164
6,057,427
509
170,381
1,058,313
737,578
1,628,986
772,809
1,790,349
897,861
67,688
292,800
72,660
36,115
3,785,060
102,489
Religious
Communities
(Population)
356,152
76,210,007
1,097,968
26,655,528
82,998,509
900,635
20,833,803
220,490
158,204
13,850,507
1,347,668
50,671,017
21,144,564
6,077,900
10,143,700
26,945,829
52,850,562
31,841,374
60,650
60,348,023
96,878,627
2,166,788
2,318,822
888,573
1,990,036
36,804,660
974,345
24,358,999
56,507,188
540,851
54,985,079
3,199,203
Christian
Percentage
21.7%
1.6%
18.7%
3.7%
0.1%
0.8%
1.9%
2.7%
2.1%
0.9%
26.7%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
4.1%
1.9%
19.0%
0.8%
0.3%
1.1%
34.0%
70.3%
87.0%
90.0%
2.4%
6.9%
1.2%
0.1%
6.7%
6.9%
3.2%
93. Christians include Protestants and Catholics. Census India, “Population by Religious Communities,” Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner India, accessed
February 14, 2014, http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_
finder/C_Series/Population_by_religious_communities.htm.
182
Uttar Pradesh
Uttaranchal
West Bengal
Total
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
212,578
27,116
515,150
24,080,016
166,197,921
8,489,349
80,176,197
1,028,610,328
0.1%
0.3%
0.6%
2.3%
TTJ 16.2 (2013): 183-191
ISSN 1598-7140
Virtual Church Leadership
Won-Bo Cho*
Torch Trinity Graduate University, Korea
Today, the necessity of the virtual church is debated particularly
regarding how we can create a virtual church that offers activities similar
to those in actual churches.1 More than 70 percent of Korean young
people are now taking part in social networking services (SNS).2 Of
these, a considerable number plays online games, especially “massively
multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).”3 More young
people are expected to participate in online games in the future because
“Facebook” recently began to offer online games on its website. Given
this development, if Christian leaders insist on ministering to young
people only in the context of their coming into the premise of the church
building, they might run the risk of being less welcoming to Gen N4
members, especially the nonbelievers. There is therefore a way to linking
the church with the cyber world.
The purpose of this paper is to argue that a “virtual church” can be
a medium for delivering powerful messages. Virtual church is a product
of postmodernism which seeks “individualized truth and narrative theology” by interactions between its members.5 Here are four factors of
interaction to consider in talking about virtual communities:
* Won-Bo Cho is a Ph.D. candidate in Christian Education.
1. Clint Schnekloth, “Virtual Church,” Word & World 32, no. 3 (Summer
2012): 246.
2. Lee Jeong Hyun, “Young People Use the Internet 2 Hours Daily on
Average,” Chung Cheong Il Bo, May 23, 2013.
3. Schnekloth, “Virtual Church,” 249.
4. According to John P. Jewell, “Gen N is the abbreviation of “Net Generation” and includes everyone who was born after around 1977. These have no
idea what a world without the internet is like. John P. Jewell, Wired for Ministry:
How the Internet, Visual Media, and Other New Technologies Can Serve Your Church
(Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2004), 55.
5. Robert C. Greer, Mapping Postmodernism: A Survey of Christian Options
(Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2003), 160-64.
184
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
(1) Interactions are between geographically dispersed individuals; (2)
they use text-based communication; (3) communication is one-way with
delayed response; and (4) members may assume identities not their own.6
Without understanding how interactions occur in virtual churches,
Christian leaders cannot use the medium of a virtual community effectively. The virtual space changes on a daily basis and the Christian leaders need to stay current with the ever-changing world of the internet if
to embrace young people from their environment. Of course, the virtual
church is not strong enough to help young people all on its own. But
once church leaders understand the weak and dangerous aspects of the
virtual church, they can strengthen its weaknesses. As Paul used letters as a tool for evangelizing and supervising churches, so can today’s
Christian leaders treat the virtual space as a space to help young people
who suffer from the negative influences of the internet. This study of
the virtual church leadership is divided into three topics: (i) virtual community, (ii) virtual ministry, and (iii) virtual pastoring.
Virtual Community
It is known that lonely, angry, and bored computer users often
suffer from sexual addiction.7 Isolation is deeply related to loneliness,
and loneliness can cause some internet visitors to turn to pornography.
For example, one author reported that when people play MMORPGs
such as “World of Warcraft,” they believe that their avatars unite with
them.8 According to the author, this might lead to committing rape or
murder in real life. Christian virtual communities could help such computer users to overcome their problems and be restored to live as healthy
social beings. But, for many people, their virtual and real-life communities are mixed together in their minds.9 According to computationalism,10
6. Andrew M. Lord, “Virtual Communities and Mission,” Evangelical Review of Theology 26, no. 3 (July 2002): 200.
7. Amy Frykholm, “Addictive behavior,” Christian Century 124, no. 18
(September 2007): 20-22.
8. Wild Streak and Sweet Water (pseud.), “Online Ministry in a Massively
Multi-Player World of Warcraft,” Tikkun 27, no. 3 (Summer 2012): 25.
9. Andrew M. Lord, “Virtual Communities and Mission,” Evangelical Review of Theology 26, no. 3 (July 2002): 199.
10. The “Computational Theory of Mind,” was proposed by Hilary Putnam in 1961. According to Steven Horst, “The mind is literally a digital computer and thought literally a kind of computation.” Steven Horst, “The Computational Theory of Mind,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Spring 2011
edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, accessed August 14, 2013, http://plato.stanford.
edu/entries/computational-mind/.
Virtual Church Leadership
185
mental states can be conceived of as a computational state of the brain.11
But John Searle, a University of California-Berkeley professor argues
against computationalism, claims that a computer program is syntactic, whereas the human minds have semantics.12 He, therefore, argues
that implementing an online program is insufficient for a mind.13 Virtual communities are limited in their ability to transform the mind.14
Although virtual reality as an event or entity creates real effects, it is
not factually real. The Bible tells us that our minds are renewed by the
work of the Holy Spirit when we present our bodies as living sacrifices,
holy, and acceptable to God.15 In this respect, it is necessary for young
people to have activities and fellowship in real churches in addition to
a virtual church.
Even though the virtual community might make a contribution to
help the church-leavers to go back to an online-church, it is not likely
to be successful at forming non-virtual Christian communities. A 2004
Church of Fools (http://www.churchoffools.com/) poll of 2400 onlinechurchgoers found that 39 percent rarely attended church offline. Similar studies done by i-church (http://www.i-church.org/), St Pixels (http://
www.stpixels.com/), and the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life (http://
slurl.com/secondlife/Epiphany/90/147/50) found 35 percent, 22 percent
and 17 percent, respectively, rarely attended real churches.16 Holy Communion, baptism, and the laying on of hands cannot be performed in a
proper manner in the virtual church. However, the unique characteristics of the online church must be understood: text-based interpersonal
communication, rapid delivery of information, global networking, and
accessibility for young people familiar with or addicted to MMORPGs
or SNS. Therefore, the initiative to connect online activities with the
11. Kevin Vallier, “Against the Computationalist Theory of the Mind: In
Defense of Searle’s Second Attack on Computationalism,” in Computers, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality: Proceedings of the ITEST Workshop, October 15-17,
2004, ed. Robert Brungs (St. Louis, MO: ITEST Faith/Science Press, 2005), 28.
12. Steven Horst, “The Computational Theory of Mind,” The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, accessed
August 14, 2013, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computational-mind/.
13. Kevin Vallier, “Against the Computationalist Theory of the Mind,” 53.
14. M. Timothy Prokes, “Real or Virtual: Theologically Does It Matter?”
in Computers, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality: Proceedings of the ITEST Workshop, October 15-17, 2004, ed. Robert Brungs (St. Louis, MO: ITEST Faith/Science Press, 2005), 96.
15. Romans 12:1-2.
16. Tim Hutchings, “Contemporary Religious Community and the Online
Church,” Information, Communication & Society 14, no. 8 (2011): 1127.
186
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
non-virtual church should be supported because doing so will allow the
distinctive advantages of the virtual church to be utilized.
In order to create a good virtual community, two important things
are required: commonality and friends online. Commonality forges
friendship, and friendship bears constant connectedness. Virtual connectedness and consequent friendships have helped people with traumas,
such as experiences of sexual abuse, to overcome them through confiding their secrets to their online friends.17 Confiding to online-friends
brings them freedom, comfort, and healing. Yet, despite these benefits,
there are some problems connected with the experience of internet
sharing, such as hypocrisy, an unhealthy desire for popularity, and lack
of accountability. Some people on the internet have the tendency to
“brag” about only the positive aspects of their lives in order to obtain
the “likes.” This makes others think of themselves as inferior to the ones
who seem, on the internet, to have a happier life. An unhealthy desire
for popularity can bring-forth lies and other kinds of trouble. Lack of
accountability is related to the laissez-faire values and anonymity of the
internet. Constant effort and attention to establishing a close and safe
community on the internet are necessary.
Virtual Ministry
There are two categories of the virtual ministry: ministry for evangelism to “win” new believers and ministry for spirituality to encourage
the believers’ spiritual growth. The virtual ministry for evangelism consists of a virtual campus created using an online portal (www.secondlife.
com), with a 3D church, avatars (virtual alter-egos), text-based forums,
chat rooms, and a team of teachers who help visitors. Sometimes, it is
necessary to appoint wardens who have the authority to expel the visitors who violate “netiquette” guidelines.
The virtual ministry for spirituality consists of a “rule of life” that
directs the participants’ prayers and studies; liturgical images with holy
emblems; short homilies; music for contemplative prayer; forums and
chat rooms for registered members who use their real names; and small
groups led by approved leaders.18 This ministry offers a resting retreat to
people living in the complex structure of contemporary society so that
they may find themselves. The virtual church, with its well- established
spirituality, can furnish its visitors with sources for self-enhancement.19
17. Renee Altson, “Virtual Community: The New Frontier,” Youthworker
21, no. 6 (July/August 2005): 40.
18. Tim Hutchings, “Online Christian Churches: Three Case Studies,”
Australian Religion Studies Review 23, no. 3 (2010): 350.
19. Ellen T. Charry, “Virtual Salvation,” Theology Today 61, no. 3 (October
Virtual Church Leadership
187
The virtual church as a faith community has to lead its participants
to interact with the Triune God and other Christian communities. The
contents of a virtual church should include a well-balanced introduction of God the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Almost three
quarters of religious surfers (72 percent) have used the internet to look
for information about their own faith.20 A virtual team should not fail to
let them know about the Trinity so that the internet surfers may meet
God or have more interest in God than otherwise. Also, explicit links
between a virtual community and a community of the poor can be a
good form of interaction.21 Most young people do not know how much
they are blessed, and they are stuck in their own problems. Communications with people who are poor may lead them to understand others’
suffering and even to help others as well. Not only fellowship with members of a poor community but also with people from various other types
of communities can help young people view their situation differently
through the lenses of others’ work and interests.
The virtual church can be used as a spiritual network, worship space,
mission tool, and defender of religious identity.22 These functions can
work effectively when programs take the form of narratives. The Menlo
Park Presbyterian Church (www.mppc.org) archives narrative style sermons on the internet. For example, sermons entitled “Audacious Prayer”
are delivered by nine speakers who tell their own stories.23 A visitor is
able to choose a sermon according to his liking and listen. Someone
may criticize this method as a “commodification” of knowledge—that
is, knowledge understood as a commodity that can be handled and operated according to personal preference.24 But it is important to understand that the internet does have a tendency to support consumerism. A
spiritual leader has to exercise leadership to transform the virtual church
2004): 340.
20. Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and ThirtySomething are Shaping the Future of American Religion (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2007), 210.
21. Andrew M. Lord, “Virtual Communities and Mission,” 203.
22. Heidi Campbell, “Spiritualising the Internet: Uncovering Discourses
and Narrative of Religious Internet Usage,” Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions
on the Internet 1, no. 1 (2005): 14, under “Special Issue on Theory and Methodology,” accessed August 6, 2013, http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/5824/1/Campbell4a.pdf.
23. Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, accessed August 6, 2013, http://
www.mppc.org/series/9-speakers-4-campuses-10-services/audacious-prayer.
24. Elizabeth Patterson, “The Questions of Distance Education,”
Theological Education 33, no. 1 (1996): 61-62.
188
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
into a holy space where discourses and narratives can be exchanged in
Christ Jesus.
Virtual Pastoring
Pastoring in the virtual church has to be done in ways equalitarian and cooperative. In the context of the virtual church, everyone is a
leader and everyone is a follower. The internet world is an equal society with low power distance. It also promotes intercultural, intergenerational, and interactive communication. The virtual church cannot be
pastor-centered, nor can it follow a managerial model (e.g., with a CEO
as decision-maker); rather, it is more like team ministry that practices
the priesthood of all believers.25 A Christian leader has a communal and
shared authority with the capability of encouraging connectedness and
kingdom values. He or she, as a member of a particular online community protests consumerism, violence, sexual perversion, and nihilistic
abandonment that have left generations without hope.26
According to David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, 38 % of unbelieving young people have bad image about Christianity, whereas 16 % have
good impression.27 Kinnaman and Lyons focus on the reasons of bad
image and explain how to overcome or cope with them. But a leader in
the virtual church needs to maximize favorable impression about Christianity, because it is believed that evil can be overcome by what is good
(Rom 12:21). The six predominant components of a good image about
Christianity revealed by a survey should be noted. They are: “it teaches
the same basic idea as other religions (28%), it has good values and principles (26%), it offers hope for the future (19%), it is friendly (18%), it
gives a faith you respect (16%), and it consistently shows love for other
people (16%).”28
The fact that teaching about Christianity has the highest responses
(28% and 26%) among the categories reviewed shows the kind of spiritual thirst people have. In order for this thirst to be filled, a virtual
teacher has to use what is called a “fully guided instruction,” which is
known as the best teaching method for the “novice learners.”29 A “fully
guided instruction” (or “explicit instruction”) is as follows:
25. David A. Livermore, Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage
Our Multicultural World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 106.
26. Livermore, Cultural Intelligence, 107.
27. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker,
2007), 25.
28. Kinnamin and Lyons, Unchristian, 28.
29. Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey, eds., Trends and Issues in In-
Virtual Church Leadership
189
(a) The teacher demonstrated a step-by-step plan (strategy) for solving
the problem; (b) the plan was problem specific and not a generic, heuristic
guide for solving problems; and (c) students were actively encouraged to
use the same procedure/steps demonstrated by the teacher.30
With this instruction method, a virtual teacher can teach the Bible,
how to pray, the meaning of worship and right attitude for it, and basic
knowledge about real church activities. Teaching can be done in various ways such as one-to-one, or one-to-two or more (up to ten persons,
because more than ten persons are not easy to handle), or as a Bible
forum (the novice is not recommended to join this form). The goal of a
virtual teacher is to establish a close rapport with the novice learners. Of
course, a team of teachers should consist of those who understand the
importance of having a close and sound relationship with the novice and
have the ability to manage it.
As far as the online pastoring is concerned, trust and empathy are
critical. Being able to trust depends on the impression created by the
first messages of the virtual-team members. An important maxim among
the online community is, “You never get a second chance to make a first
impression.”31 Online interpersonal trust is correlated with the number
of “likes.” The more “likes” recorded, the greater the trust. The most
important is how attractive the discussion topics and online communities are to the new visitor. Leaders need to have empathic accuracy, which
is the ability to infer people’s thoughts and feelings, and they must also
be able to determine appropriate, supportive, and encouraging responses.32 If a virtual team is comprised of various experts, the shared values
between the visitors and the team members can build a high empathic
accuracy. Without supportive responses from the virtual team members,
however, empathic accuracy alone fails to establish trust.
According to Robert E. Coleman, Jesus’ strategy to win His disciples
consisted of seven steps: “1) look for servant workers; 2) stay with them
as much as possible; 3) show them how to live the gospel; 4) involve
them in ministry; 5) keep them growing and going; 6) expect them to
structional Design and Technology, 3rd ed. (Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2012),
377.
30. R. Gersten, D. J. Chard, M. Jayanthi, S. K. Baker, P. Morphy and
J. Flojo, “Mathematics Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A
Meta-analysis of Instructional Components,” Review of Educational Research 79,
no. 3 (September 2009): 1228.
31. Diane L. Coutu, “Trust in Virtual Teams,” Harvard Business Review 76,
no. 3 (May-June 1998): 20.
32. Jinjuan Feng, Jonathan Lazar, and Jenny Preece, “Empathy and Online
Interpersonal Trust: A Fragile Relationship,” Behaviour and Information Technology
23, no. 2 (March-April 2004): 99.
190
Torch Trinity Journal 16 (2013)
reproduce; and 7) trust them to the Holy Spirit.”33 In a virtual church,
the first and second steps can be successfully accomplished by an excellent virtual teacher or pastor. Accomplishing steps three to seven, however, are difficult because they are require personal involvement outside
of the virtual community. Nonetheless, it does not mean that the virtual
church is in vain. Using the vantage points of the virtual church, assistance can be given to the young people who are ready to move beyond
the level three of spiritual growth by integrating the advantages of the
virtual church and the real church.
A leader in the virtual church must beware of four dangers in the
virtual space. The first is the connection of spirituality and sexuality.
Today’s media-based culture has an aspect of consumerism that utilizes
sensuality as a means of business. Pornographic industry can try to use
this technology and earn money through pathologic items.34 Unless a
leader always keeps this in mind, a virtual church’s holy ground will
be changed into a place of decadence. The second danger is that cyberspace is a place of pluralism in which religions compete with each other.
Both “orthodox religions” and “cults” exist together in cyberspace. So,
this threatens the perception of the reliability of religious institutions.
Furthermore, there is a possibility of “neo-pluralism,” which means that
the advent of “technocratic and political elites” can cause religions of
cyberspace to be manipulated under their power.35
The third concern is that the Christian concept of eternal life can
be treated as a transient notion and therefore can be manipulated like
any other cyberephemera.36 A plethora of religious spaces in the internet
can cause people to be suspicious of the unchangeable truth the Christian faith upholds. The characteristics of the virtual space are “pluralism, diversity, and tolerance, creating an environment in which different
spiritualities aren’t seen as mutually exclusive.”37 The fourth danger is
related to soteriology in the online world. Soteriology on the internet is
in line with that of Gnosticism, for virtual salvation is based on ghosts
(avatars) without human bodies.38 So, a leader in the virtual church
33. Robert E. Coleman, “The Jesus Way to Win the World,” Evangelical
Review of Theology 29, no. 1 (January 2005): 78-80.
34. Howard A. Snyder, “The Cybergeneration,” Christianity Today 37, no
15 (December 1993): 16.
35. Eliezer Ben-Rafael, “Kibbutz: Survival at Risk,” Israel Studies 16, no. 2
(Summer 2011): 87.
36. Tom Beaudoin, Virtual Faith:The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation
X (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998), 58.
37. Walt Mueller, The Space Between: A Parent’s Guide to Teenage Development
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 84.
38. J. Matthew Ashley, “The Word Made Virtual: The Soteriology of the
Virtual Church Leadership
191
should help the online participants to embody their faith and their salvation by means of spiritual exercises such as the lectio divina and promote having a sound fellowship with the members of a real church.39
Conclusion
The age of the printed word fostered reasoning, whereas the internet age promotes intuition, images, and impressions.40 Reading a book
leads a person to having an in-depth reflection, but the internet provides
only a superficial level of knowledge. The former provides occasions to
develop integrated and holistic thinking; the latter, for the most part,
offers only interconnecting ideas. Therefore, people living in the internet age can lack proper skills to develop integrated thinking, which is
needed in meditating on the Bible. The interactive digital culture made
possible by the internet allows people to establish communities based
on this new form of communication technology. Christian leaders need
to utilize this new form of communication and “community” for God’s
glory. The virtual church can encourage young people to form online
communities in Christ. In a virtual ministry, spiritual formation based
on holy imagination is crucial. In addition, it can lead people to have a
restored faith in God. The role of a virtual leader is to help young people
to first “question their faith,”41 so that they can be led to solve their
skepticism and ultimately become strengthened in faith.
Internet,” An American Catholic Journal of Ministry 14, no. 1 (February 2001): 78.
39. Ashley, “The Word Made Virtual,” 80.
40. Shane Hipps, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes
Faith, the Gospel, and Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 132.
41. Mueller, The Space Between, 84.