How to Insult a Cherub
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquities & the New Testament
How to Insult a Cherub
There are so many historical questions about the Scriptures that remain unanswered, that it is sad when interpreters ignore good evidence when they have it. I have in mind the issue of the cherubim. These beings are mentioned several times in Scripture, all the way from Genesis (3:24) to Revelation (19:4). In Revelation the cherubim are called the “four living creatures,” but we have known since the time of Ezekiel that the cherubim were also called by the name “living creatures” (Eek. 10:20, “These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel (Ezek. 1) by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim”).
The specific issue about the cherubim concerns their appearance. What exactly (or even approximately) do they look like? A puzzling aspect of the cherubim issue is that long before the discoveries of archaeology in the region of ancient Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, the Scriptures themselves gave detailed descriptions about their shape and physical features. Since the writings of Scripture are straightforward on this issue, why have so many Christian artists and Bible interpreters failed to get it right?
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| Giusto de’ Menabuoi, (1320-1391) “Cherub” at the Garden of Eden. A very human looking cherub. |
Even a cursory look at Ezekiel chapter one or Revelation chapter 4 makes it patently clear that cherubim did not have a human shape with wings attached. And one certainly did not have to be a visionary like Ezekiel or John to know about the cherubim. Representations of the cherubim were placed on top of the ark of the covenant (Exod. 25) and were woven into the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exod. 26; 36). Furthermore, images of these cherubim were carved “On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms” (1 Kgs. 6:29) and “on the two olive wood doors” (1 Kgs 6:32).
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| “Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle” James J. J. Tissot 19th century. Notice the human shape of the cherubim on the ark of the covenant. |
Earlier Christian artists have clearly missed the point about the shape of the cherubim based upon what is recorded in Scripture. To make matters worse, archaeological discoveries in the past one and one-half centuries have produced artifacts that give us some insight into the general features of these cherubim, yet this information is also ignored. What these material remains have demonstrated is that the basic idea about the living creatures, namely that they have features and size that are mythic in nature was also well known in the artwork of Israel’s neighbors.
The difficulty that many modern Christians have with accepting a realistic notion about the cherubim is evident in the fact that some contemporary Christian study materials which are otherwise very scholarly (e.g., NIV Study Notes) continue to depict the cherubim is ways that obviously contradict the clear teaching of Scripture. Far too many current study guides still portray the cherubim over the ark of the covenant or standing at the east of the garden of Eden as humanoid forms with wings, that is, as angels.
The sense of awe, wonder, majesty, and fear that the original message of the cherubim was intended to convey is diluted when a relatively puny “angelic” form is substituted. All civilizations of the Ancient Middle East knew that these monstrous, composite, animal forms (theriomorphic beings) were intend to communicate the power and might associated with gods and divine kings in their cultures.
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| Notice the size of this composite form, animal/human-faced being. British Museum |
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| This being has the front feet of one animal, the rear feet of another, and the horn of a dragon. Gate of Ishtar, Berlin, Pergamon Museum. |
The modern readers of Scripture would do well to let the Bible speak for itself and not substitute less awe inspiring “angels” for the cherubim of Scripture. No self-respecting cherub would ever want to be depicted in mere humanoid form!
Tested in Smyrna
The church at Smyrna is the only congregation where John mentions imprisonment for believers. To be sure, the imprisonment of believers is not only associated in the New Testament with saints who live in Roman Asia. In Acts (5:21-23; 16:23; 23:18), Hebrews (10:34; 13:3), and the Pauline letters, the Apostles (2 Cor. 6:5; 11:23), Pauline co-workers (Rom. 16:7; Col. 4:10), and those believers pursued by Saul (Acts 8:3; 22:4; 26:10) were often destined for prison. The testimony of the Apostolic Fathers presents similar evidence.
Two items about the imprisonment in Smyrna are noteworthy. The association of imprisonment with the idea of being “tested” and the use of the phrase “ten days” stand out. John certainly uses the number ten at other times in Revelation, but his other uses of the number ten typically relate to the ten horns, or ten kings, or ten diadems associated with the evil beast in chapters 13-17. Other than these occurrences of the number “ten” in Revelation, this number does not seem to fit into the general numerology of the book.
Only in one other place in Scripture is there a similar association of the term “ten” with the idea of being tested, and that is in the book of Daniel. John not only knows the book of Daniel, but relies upon it frequently for his imagery (esp. Daniel chapters 7 and 10). Chapter one of Daniel seems to provide the source of the “ten days” imagery used in the letter to the congregation in Smyrna.
The saints in Daniel chapter one are situated in Babylon, just as the believers of John’s day also live out their days in their own Babylon, Rome. Even with only a superficial reading of Daniel one, it is hard to miss the fact that assimilation is the primary temptation for Daniel and his friends. The Babylonians are making every effort to assimilate Daniel and his fellow Israelites into Babylonian culture and religion by getting them to forsake Jewish laws and mores which help them maintain their holiness. The issue revolved around their diet. Daniel knew that if he chose the “royal food and wine” of Babylonia (Dan. 1:8) rather than “vegetables and water” he would be defiling himself (Dan. 1:8). This dietary test lasted for ten days (Dan. 1:14). Daniel and his three Jewish friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, all remained faithful throughout the ten day temptation. They resisted the temptation of assimilation and for their faithfulness God rewarded them with blessings (Dan. 1:17-20).
The saints in Smyrna, at least some them, now face their own temptation. John warns them with these words, “Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.” (Rev. 2:10). If the death of Stephen (Acts 7) and later martyrs is any indication, we know that persecutions never attempted to kill all the believers. This symbolic “ten days” of testing and tribulation at Smyrna would, however, lead to the death of some believers. John’s statement about being “faithful unto death” (Rev. 2:10) clearly referred to death by martyrdom. There is a firm promise of blessings for the followers of the Lamb who loved Christ more than their own lives. For those who were willing to resist Roman assimilation even on threat of death, there was the assurance of the “crown of lIfe” (Rev. 2:10) and the knowledge that they would not “be harmed by the second death” (Rev. 2:11), which is “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (Rev. 21:8).
The temptation of assimilation lies close at hand in every generation. Sometimes it seduces through seemingly innocent tests like those Daniel and his friends had to experience. At other times it comes in more dramatic contexts with more painful consequences, like those choices that had to be made by believers in Smyrna. In every instance, in every culture, in every age, the seduction of assimilation is always like the “lips of an adulteress that drip honey, and whose speech is smoother than oil (Prov. 5:3). This probably explains the words, perhaps the plea, of Jesus at the end of each letter, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev. 2:11).
Non-Christian Missionaries in Antiquity
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquities & the New Testament
At least as early as the writings of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, interpreters of Acts 19:1-7 have thought that the “disciples” mentioned in 19:1 were “Baptists” who remained loyal to their eponymous prophetic founder, John the Baptist. If Chrysostom and later interpreters have been correct, then naturally one wonders why this group was located so far removed from its Judean origin. Without this Lukan reference, one might have imagined that followers of John would have remained clustered in Judea, or at least in the Holy Land.
The deeper one looks into the historical resources of the Graeco-Roman world, the more the mobility of the ancients becomes apparent. The Samaritans, for example, provide another illustration of a branch of ancient Judaism that was not content to remain at home, but moved into the Diaspora. From the Cycladic island of Delos comes a Greek inscription containing a dedication given by the Samaritans. Once again, had this archaeological evidence not come to light, scholars would likely not have imagined that this Samaritan branch of Judaism would have had worshippers on Delos.
We do not know whether the Ephesian Baptists or the Delian Samaritans saw themselves as missionaries, but when we come to the early Buddhists, it is clear that they saw themselves involved in “proselytism,” disseminating both Buddhist teachings and lifestyle.
This archaeological record provides some of the earliest documentation of Buddhism and comes from a corpus of 3rd century BC inscriptions. The author is a regal convert to Buddhism. Ashoka the Great was one of India’s greatest rulers. After the King witnessed firsthand the savage killing of over 100,000 people in his conquest of the small, neighboring state of Kalinga, he became disgusted and devoted himself to Buddhism and pacifism.
Based upon his new devotion to Buddhism, Ashoka [Beloved-of-the-gods] sends “missionaries,” not only to Greek communities in the region of Afghanistan left from the days of Alexander the Great and Seleucid control, but also “missionaries” to the Mediterranean Basis. These ambassadors of Buddhism were sent about 4,000 miles to Greece, the Middle East, and Egypt.
When the modern student of the New Testament reads of the travels of the Magi in Matthew or imagines the journeys of Paul or other apostles, it is important to keep in mind the amazing amount and extent of travel in the ancient world and how itinerant most religions in the Graeco-Roman era were.
The God Who Comes
It is stunning how often the prophet John uses some form of the word “come” [for those into Greek, the term is erchomai]. At some later occasion under the GRANT post we will explore John’s view of time in comparison to some of the religious and philosophical views of antiquity. Like all true biblical prophets, John was not a deist, but believed that the Lord was a “God who comes,” who interacts with both the larger world and with his elect, the church.
It is not unusual for believers to associate God’s coming with his final judgment in Christ, i.e., “He is coming with the clouds” (Rev. 1:7). It is just as natural for John to express the conviction that Christ will come in history to Christian congregations, either to punish them (Ephesus, Rev. 2:16) or to grant blessings (Laodicea, Rev. 3:20). It would be interesting to know whether most contemporary believers in North America embrace the idea of divine interaction when they view their congregation’s life and history. Whether looking upon the enormous success of certain congregations or the flotsam and jetsam of declining congregations it has been far to easy to look only at the issues and facts that can be evaluated by sociologists and demographist. My concern is one of balance, not the dismal of social concerns. John might just think we have surrendered the primacy of the “God who comes” to the tinkering of those trained in the social sciences.
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| Albrecht Dürer, Woodcut “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” 1497-98. |
Whether it is John’s depiction of the coming of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (Rev. 6:1-8) or the coming of the various “Woes” (Rev. 8:13; 9:12; 11:14), it is likewise evident that John believes in God’s coming into the world and into its history and events. The “Four Horsemen,” for example, receive their commission from the living creatures who worship at the throne of God. They are not sent out by Satan. It is a complete misreading of Revelation to imagine that God holds his involvement in history and culture in abeyance until the End or a few years before the End. John believes that God is moving history toward it consummation, one step at a time.
In the case of the decadent whore, Rome, (Rev. 17) God’s use of this beast also mentioned in Revelation 17 is very striking. Through the cooperation of other nations God decides “to make the whore desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her up with fire.” John succinctly summarizes the divine perspective in these words, “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled” (Rev. 17:17). That is, God intervenes in and works through pagan kingdoms to carry out his will in the world and in its history, even if it is “bad news” for one’s own country. In this regard John understood Isa. 40:15 in a way that many believers who lived after the Roman Emperor Constantine never will understand it, “Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket, a mere smudge on a window. Watch him sweep up the islands like so much dust off the floor!” (Isa. 40:15, The Message). Some in John’s audience were probably shocked to learn that the national aspirations and foreign policies of a believer’s own nation may be far removed from those of God.
Imagine the exhilaration of viewing history and culture through the prism of the “God who comes” and “until the words of God will be fulfilled” rather than the recurring cynical experience of nationalism and cultural self interest. With so much (mis)association of the book of Revelation with the End, it is time to recapture John’s vision that God also comes into the life and destinies of congregations and nations.
Who’s Who Among Ephesian Women
GRANT
Graeco-Roman Antiquities & the New Testament
There are things you can tell about an entire ocean even if you have only one cup of water from it. Naturally a scientist would like to have as many cups and as broad a sampling as possible, but even a single cup is of some help. The same is true when investigating the world of the New Testament. You can learn something even from one ancient document, though the explorer of the ancient world would like to have as many documents as possible.
I hope once a week to present a small sample of information that mirrors some aspect of the ancient world surrounding nascent Christianity.
Who’s Who Among Ephesian Women
For many generations men and women in the pews have been misled by preachers in the pulpits, who were misled by their seminary professors, who were misled by historians and archaeologists, who were themselves especially misled by their own prejudices. In spite of the growing body of evidence, they just could not believe that there were influential women in the Hellenistic-Roman cities of the Aegean region.
I refer to this misinformation about the status and role of women in the world of the apostle Paul because ignorance on this subject makes one vulnerable in areas of exegesis, interpretation, and theology. Much has been written in the past 30 years to make it clearer that the women in the cities of Paul’s first, second, and third missionary journeys were not living in the same kind of world portrayed by the (male) classical Greek authors of ancient Athens, much less a world dominated by some Taliban-like rulers of remote Afghanistan.
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Antoninus Pius, Rome mint, AD 138.
Used with the kind permission of
Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.,
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Accordingly there is no reason to doubt the historical accuracy of Luke when he alludes to “women of prominence/women of high standing” (NASB/NIV) in Acts 13:50 or “prominent Greek women/women of influence” (NIV/The Message) in Acts 17:12. When Paul tells an unnamed co-worker at Philippi to “help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers” (Phil. 4), we can assume that women in Paul’s world were able to get about and participate in many, though certainly not all, of the city’s activities.
Turning to the artifacts of Roman Ephesus, we encounter one such participating woman from the middle of the second century AD, a little-known woman named Cominia Junia. Part of her life was lived during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (AD 86-161). Unlike the extant ancient literature that was basically controlled by the males of that world, the excavated inscriptions and statues of that world often tell a fuller story than the literature. Like Lydia (Acts 16) and like the unnamed influential women of Luke’s narrative, this Cominia Junia is also a very religious woman. Traces from Roman Ephesus reveal a woman with both public presence and piety to the gods.
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| Round altar displayed in the Museum at Selçuk, Turkey. |
The first inscription is not like the many thousands of small, private votive religious texts that were dedicated to some god or goddess for help in the past. In this inscription discovered by John Turtle Wood in the 1860s, Cominia Junia publicly dedicated a now lost statue and altar of the Egyptian goddess Isis (in the harbor area), to those who manage the fishery toll office near the harbor, to the Emperor, and to the city of Ephesus, “First and Greatest Metropolis of Asia” (Inscriptions from Ephesus, # 1503).
A second testimony to this pious Ephesian woman was discovered nearly a century after her name first came to light (Inscriptions from Ephesus, # 1266). The iconography of this monument also testifies to the religious orientation of Cominia Junia’s altar. Cominia was honoring a vow made to the Ephesian goddess Artemis (cf. Acts 19:23-41) and from her own personal financial resources she had set up this base, with its now missing statue of the goddess, and dedicated an altar.
The visual remains show a praying woman, a sacrificial fire, and a single musician to accompany the worship. Since she has her head covered for the sake of the religious setting (cf. 1 Cor. 11:5-6) she is worshipping according to “Roman liturgical style.” Both inscriptions mention that the respective monument was financed by Cominia Junia herself, using her own resources, and they both mention religious altars, with the second monument depicting a solemn scene of worship and devotion to the great goddess Artemis. If this pious woman continued in her worship of the Ephesian goddess, then she would have become deeply troubled when she learned of Christians who taught that pagan deities were made with hands and were not really gods after all (Acts 19:26). Or, perhaps she was a “seeker” and her religious proclivities eventually led to the worship of the one, true God.LOOKING FOR A FIGHT
Those saints at Pergamum have had plenty of battles to fight, and now Christ is threatening to bring on some more, unless they shape up soon. Once again their response to John’s message will determine what Christ does with them (2:16a). Is it not enough that they have to live and do ministry where “Satan’s throne is” (2:13)? In fact, the enemy Satan has taken up his residence so strongly in Pergamum that it even cost the “faithful servant, Antipas” his life. Jesus’ warning that he will come “with the sword of my mouth” (2:16b) is focused against both those who assimilate to the culture through sexual immorality and paganism and those church members who tolerate such (2:14-16).
It is more than a little significant that this imagery of God’s servant coming to bring judgment “with the sword of my mouth” comes from Isaiah 49:2 (cf. Isa. 1:20). If one is a long time friend of the writings of Luke (Acts 1:8; 13:47) or Paul (Rom. 14:11; 2 Cor. 6:2), then Isa. 49 is no stranger. It is often missed that some of the heavenly imagery most often cited from Revelation at the funerals of Christians comes from the same chapter as this fighting Messiah who comes with a sword.
The militant metaphor clearly implies that the assault will come through what is spoken or preached; the words of the mouth will certainly become the sword of the Spirit. We saints probably have not protested too much against the notion that God’s earthly agent “will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked” (Isa. 11:4). But do we ourselves ever expect to feel like we have been assaulted or worked over by a message from God, especially for our sin of swimming around carefree in the sea of pagan idolatry that surrounds us?
It is not too many verses later in this same chapter of Isaiah (49:10) where one reads the words and thoughts that guide the promises and blessing stated in Rev 7:16-7: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.”
This seeming tension, beginning with fighting words but ending with words of consolation, should not seem so unusual to a student of Scripture. –– Being the greatest requires being the least; life only comes after dying; discipline is a sure sign of love.–– The well-known “spiritual” hymn “Get right, church, and let’s go home” captures this theological tension. If Pergamene believers yearn to “let’s go home” when they reflect upon the heavenly, idyllic scene of being led “to streams of living waters,” they had better “get right” or be ready to face the fighting words of the Messiah to get the sins of assimilation and tolerance of assimilation out of their lives. While the “teaching of Balaam” (2:14) would surely prepare a believer and his family at Pergamum to enjoy the good life and culture of Roman Pergamum with its great wealth, pagan sexual ethic, and spirit of pluralism, John’s prophetic message is the only one that confirms the promise to the faithful believer that the “Lamb will be their shepherd” (7:17).
