It’s been really fun following along with the conference presenters. The last presenter, Ehrman, gave an overview of Paul and showed how Paul saw himself as the prophesied one at the end of history who would bring the gentiles to the God of the Jews. Paul sees himself as spreading the gospel to the end of the earth (at that time Spain), and with that the end would come.

  It is the Godly figurative opening of eyes that is the key issue, as apocalyptic pharisee Saul’s eyes were opened by his vision of Jesus and he became Paul, or the soldier in Luke whose eyes were open to the innocence of Jesus – a completion of the “eye-opening” started in Eden where sinful Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to their nakedness, the issue of their questioning/doubting of God’s words which evolved into the twisting of God’s words by the Jewish elite who conspired against Jesus. 

Of course, in this we see that the Jewish notion of sin is only superficially appeasing God’s wrath with sacrifice as we see in other ancient religions, but rather coming to really see yourself so there can be real change, since sacrificing a ram can be a mere gesture and one will just go on sinning. We see this with the binding of Issac where this is a real and meaningful sacrifice for Abraham, unlike a meaningless ram, where killing Issac would destroy the future promise given to Abraham, but God wanted obedience, not blood, and so Isaac was spared. In this regard we read:

22 And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice
and to heed than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22)

Jesus criticized the teachers of His time for similar practices. Matthew 6 notes three religious activities—fasting, public prayer, and giving to those in need—that people often use to look good in front of other people rather than to honor God. As in 1 Samuel 15, the problem is not the offerings but the disobedience of God’s commands and the desire for approval of people rather than the approval of God.

This is very much captured in the religious philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas in “Totality and Infinity” and “Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence,” and Jacques Derrida in his response to Levinas in “Violence and Metaphysics.” The face-to-face relation is a concept in the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas’ thought on human sociality. It means that, ethically, people are responsible to one-another in the face-to-face encounter. Specifically, Lévinas says that the human face “orders and ordains” us. It calls the subject into “giving and serving” the Other. It is the suffering face of widow, orphan, stranger and enemy that awakens an infinite responsibility in me.

So, go ahead an order a replay of the conference. It was excellent and I learned a lot! And, your purchase includes a lot of great slides. James Tabor suggests collecting them by doing a screen capture.