Crowd Sourced Archeology

I read this really interesting article today about a new site that uses crowd sourcing to help translate portions of Greek text from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. The site is called ancientlives.org

I tried it out today and it is kind of like a puzzle because it isn't actual translation - users simply identify Greek letters on pictures of papyrus manuscripts. Oxyrhynchus is one of Egypt's oldest Christian centers which is known because it is the location of some of the oldest ancient manuscripts of the New Testament. Today there are still hundreds (maybe thousands) of manuscripts still untranslated.

Chiasm: Daniel 1-5

A: Vessels from the House of God placed in treasury of the gods of Babylon (1:2)

  B: God is sovereign over the human mind (1:3-21)

      - God endowed Daniel and friends with wisdom and knowledge for obedience

      - Daniel and friends eat vegetables

    C: King Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Great Statue destroyed by the Mountain (2:1-46)

      D: Nebuchadnezzar's praise of the Most High God (2:47)

        E: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego promoted (2:49) 

          F: Nebuchadnezzar commands that everyone who doesn't bow will be killed (3:1-6)

            G: Everyone bows to the gold statue (3:7) 

              H: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego denounced to Nebuchadnezzar for disobeying (3:8-12)

                I: Nebuchadnezzar summons Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (3:13)

                  J: Nebuchadnezzar questions the power of their "god" (3:14-15)

                   K: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ask to be used as a test of God's power (3:16-18)

                     L: Command for furnace to be overheated (3:19)

                       M: Order to bind and throw them in the furnace (3:20)

                       M': Bound and thrown into the furnace (3:21)

                     L': Overheated furnace kills guards (3:22)

                   K': The Test: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the furnace (3:23)

                  J': Nebuchadnezzar witnesses God delivering them in the furnace (3:24-25)

                I': Nebuchadnezzar summons Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (3:26)

              H': Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego praised by Nebuchadnezzar for disobeying (3:27-28)

            G': Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow (3:28b)  

          F': Nebuchadnezzar commands that everyone who doesn't honor God will be killed (3:29)

        E': Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego promoted (3:30)

      D': Nebuchadnezzar's praise of the Most High God (4:2-3)
    C': King Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Great Tree that was cut down (4:4-27)

  B': God is sovereign over the human mind (4:28-37)

       - God removes reason and sanity from Nebuchadnezzar for disobedience

       - Nebuchadnezzar eats grass
A': Vessels from the House of God used while praising the gods of Babylon (5:2-4)

I think there are some quite strong parallels in this possible chiasm, but there are a few weak points. Namely, B-B' (which is a long section) as well as K-K' (which is a short section and a long section). A few sections have more parallels that I listed such as C-C' as well as others, but are difficult to show in this form. Is there a different way of breaking this chiasm down that I am not seeing? Feedback anyone?

I had heard that there was a chiasm in Daniel. I thought I caught a hint of one and explored that possibility above. However, others accept another structure from Daniel 1-7, and some go on to suggest a second chiasm for the rest of the book. 

Does this chiasm help us interpret this passage? The pivot point M-M' doesn't ordinarily stick out to me as a reader. But maybe the author wants the reader to meditate more deeply on what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did in their faith - allowing themselves to be thrown into a furnace to show God's power to the world. I wonder if there is another chiasm with the pivot around Daniel being thrown into the lion's den? Hmmm... I will have to look into that. 

We can't get away from the main idea of Daniel: God is sovereign over all! We see repeated themes in this chiasm of His sovereignty and power over the human mind (B-B'), governments and political powers (C-C'), position and authority (E-E'), life and death (FM-F'M').

Why was the Miracle at the Wedding at Cana included in the Gospel of John?

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." ⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. ⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." ¹¹Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. -John 2:1-11

This story is interesting but why was it included? Was it because it was the first miracle that Jesus did?

When the author says that this was "the first of his signs ... and revealed his glory" he is implying that miracle showed Jesus' nature, who he was and what he came to do. For instance, the dialogue between the steward and the bridegroom has a much deeper message than what you read on the surface. If we only take the surface meaning that we can conclude that Jesus not only has the power to make water into wine, but he can make very good wine. Doesn't seem like a very important point. That is because the author is trying to show something else.

This dialogue between the steward and bridegroom is prophetic. Jesus is the good wine that was saved until the end. Many, many prophets were sent including great ones such as Moses, Elijah, and Daniel, but the reader is meant to pick up on the fact that Jesus is the greatest of them all. He was saved for last - "the best wine last". This is the wisdom and kindness of God to send his greatest prophet last.

Did the church suppress the true gospel in their selection of the canon?

I have been searching for a conclusive answer to this question for some time. I read this last week and has been by far the best answer, burying the question for me.

The Syriac Bible was a conservative text, to a degree that demands our attention. In recent years, accounts of the early church claim that scriptures and gospels were very numerous, until the mainstream Christian church suppressed most of them in the fourth century. This alleged purge followed the Christian conversion of the emperor Constantine, at a time when the church supposedly wanted to ally with the empire in the interests of promoting order, orthodoxy, and ecclesiastical authority. According to modern legend, the suppressed works included many heterodox accounts of Jesus, which were suspect because of their mystical or even feminist leanings. 

The problem with all this is that the Eastern churches had a long familiarity with the rival scriptures, but rejected them because they knew they were late and tendentious. Even as early as the second century, the Diatessaron assumes four, and only four, authentic Gospels. Throughout the Middle Ages, neither Nestorians nor Jacobites were under any coercion from the Roman/Byzantine Empire or church, and had they wished, they could have included in the canon any alternative Gospels or scriptures they wanted to. But instead of adding to the canon, they chose to prune. The Syriac Bible omits several books that are included in the West (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and the book of Revelation). Scholars like Isho'dad wanted to carry the purge further, and did not feel that any of the Catholic Epistles could seriously claim apostolic authoriship. The only extraneous text that a few authorities wished to include was the Diatessaron itself. The deep conservatism of these churches, so far removed from papal or imperial control, makes nonsense of claims that the church bureacracy allied with empire to suppress unpleasant truths about Christian origins.  -Philip Jenkins The Lost History of Christianity, Harper Collins 2008. page 88

I would highly recommend Jenkins' new book. I'm just in the middle of it right now. Might post more from it later.