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39. See chap. 5 above.
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40. Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 99: “Never has a more withering political and economic criticism of empire been penned.”
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41. Rev. 17.3, 18.3.
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42. Rev. 18.23. See Wink’s comment, Engaging the Powers, p. 93: “People must be made to believe that they benefit from a system that is in fact harmful to them.”
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43. Rev. 13.3–4.
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44. Rev. 18.24.
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45. Rev. 18.7, 16; 18.23, 9.
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46. Rev. 18.12–13.
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47. Rev. 18.14, 19.
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48. Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 93: it “proselytizes by means of a civil religion that declares the state and its leaders divine.”
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49. Rev. 18.4. See the comment of Gerd Theissen, The Religion of the Earliest Churches, trans. John Bowden (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), p. 244: John drives a wedge “between the community and the world. It was not the emperor cult that was the great problem, but the lack of demarcation between many Christians in the churches and the pagan world, its affairs, and its society.” John seeks to resist “tendencies in the community to assimilate to this world. . . . The Roman empire did not declare war on the Christians; a Christian prophet declared war on the Roman empire.”
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50. For a striking tabulation of the symmetrical contrasts between the two cities, see Howard-Brook and Gwyther, Unveiling Empire, p. 160, and their chapter on “Babylon or New Jerusalem?” pp. 157–96.
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51. The paragraphs that follow are all based on Rev. 21.1–22.5.
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52. The phrase “gold transparent as glass” makes me wonder if John perhaps did see the New Jerusalem in a visionary state (in contrast to the whole of the vision being a literary creation). Mystical experiences are frequently marked by golden light, so much so that the historian of religions Mircea Eliade refers to such experiences as “experiences of the golden world.” Cited by Robert A. Johnson (with Jerry M. Ruhl) in Balancing Heaven and Earth (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), p. 2.
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53. As noted in chap. 6, I owe the phrase “the dream of God” to the title of Verna Dozier’s book, The Dream of God (Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 1991).
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54. Rev. 14.4. For critiques of his misogynistic language and two different ways of dealing with it, see Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Revelation: Vision of a Just World (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991) and Tina Pippin, Death and Desire: The Rhetoric of Gender in the Apocalypse of John (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992).
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55. Rev. 14.20.
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56. See John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), p. 586
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1. Matt. 22.37–40; see also Mark 12.29–31. I owe the relational readings of this passage to the Rev. Dr. Fred Burnham of Trinity Institute, New York City.
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2. Deut. 6.4–5; Lev. 19.18.
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To the Reader:
This PerfectBound e-book edition of Marcus Borg’s Reading the Bible Again for the First Time contains hyperlinks to each of Professor Borg’s chapter endnotes and to selected related passages in The HarperCollins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version.
Simply click on the link and you will be able to read the related note or biblical passage; you can click back from the note or passage to the point where you stopped reading in Professor Borg’s book.
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Leviticus 20.13
13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.
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Leviticus 19.19
19 You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.
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Exodus 20.1-21
20 Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
3 you shall have no other gods before me.
4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,
6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work— you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
13 You shall not murder.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,
19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you, and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”
21 Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
Deuteronomy 5.1-21
5 Moses convened all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently.
2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
3 Not with our ancestors did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.
4 The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire.
5 (At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the words of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:
6 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
7 you shall have no other gods before me.
8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and
fourth generation of those who reject me,
10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male or female slave may rest as well as you.
15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
17 You shall not murder.
18 Neither shall you commit adultery.
19 Neither shall you steal.
20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
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1 Corinthians 8.1-13
8 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.
4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.”
5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth-as in fact there are many gods and many lords—
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
9 But take care lthat this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
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Joshua 6.15-21
15 On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times.
16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city.
17 The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent.
18 As for you, keep away from the things devoted to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.
19 But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.”
20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.
21 Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
Joshua 11.16-21
16 So Joshua took all that land: the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland,
17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He took all their kings, struck them down, and put them to death.
18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
19 There was not a town that made peace with the Israelites, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon; all were taken in battle.
20 For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts so that they would come against Israel in battle, in order that they might be utterly destroyed, and might receive no mercy, but be exterminated, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
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Revelation 9.18-21
18 By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they inflict harm.
20 The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.
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Romans 13.11-14
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;
12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;
13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
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Mark 8.27-10.45
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”
30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
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