Yes, geography IS critical to hermeneutics.

Much to the shegrin of many. Take for example Jonah 1:3.

Jonah has just recieved his running orders to head to Nineveh and to preach to the great enemy...the dreaded Assyrians. If you don't know that Tarshish is in the region of Spain, you miss the fact that Jonah is going litterally to the ENDS of the known earth, in the exact opposite direction of where God had called him. You can't GET more disobedient than Jonah's actions. His geographical direction points to that very interpretation.

We read then that Jonah "decended to Joppa." Without the knowledge of Geography, you start to get interpretations (and this was happening in my class less than an hour ago) as varied as "I see Jonah's descent as him descending from God into judgment." Or "It looks like Jonah might be descending towards his death, which he'll metaphorically experience when he's in the whale." and on and on.

Finally, I had had enough. Uncharacteristically, I just called out, without raising my hand or waiting my turn, "But if you know geography, you know that Jonah is in the North in the Hill Country. Joppa is on the Coast. The author is just giving a description of what Jonah HAD to do, go down. That's it. Samaria is in the mountains, Jappa is below on the coast. You simply have to go down hill to get to it. There's no code work for something spiritual here. This is simply the action of the story."

Paper shuffling. "Okay. Let's go on to verse 4, shall we?" as the professor directs us.

Rar.

Revisiting Mark Through Isaiah.

One of the most absolutely profound moments in my experiences at Hope was when I took the Gospel of Mark class that first time. It was so profound in its impact, that I would go through the class a second time, and then the last half a third time. Mark is simple, yet profound. He moves quickly, yet moves deep as well. The text and the class proved such a point of passion for me, that even at Sem, I am spending my one and only Gospel Exegesis class in the Gospel of Mark. I want to know it inside and out so that someday, I can teach the course and—hopefully—be able to bring many, many folk on the same collision course between the text, their lives, and this strange ‘Jesus’ fellow, as it was for me.

This time, however, the work is even MORE intensive than just laboring over the text the way our little group did. This time, however, we parse every verb, diagram every sentence, and correlate every participle with their governing verb or noun. The work is monumental, and the pace is break-neck. My Professor, Scott Hafemann, is well known and respected as being one of the best professors on campus, but also the most Task-Master-esque. Well, making bricks without straw has already built its first pyramid.

Take for example, the very first sentence in most translations of Mark: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We learn in Mark class, that this is the title, and that the book of Mark in itself is the beginning of the Good News. I think that most translations are wrong to put the period here after “son of God.” The very next word in Greek is a subordinating conjunction. In laymen’s terms, what follows the conjunction is a clause SUBORDINATE to the first, and entirely dependant on the first section. Thus the opening is rendered, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet:…”

In other words, the Gospel of Mark isn’t the beginning of the Good News, but ISAIAH is the location of the beginning of the Good News.

Just as “Four Score and Seven Year’s Ago” was Lincoln’s way of saying that the sacrifice at Gettysburg where we now stand is consistent and ought to be interpreted in light of the forming of the United States (though 87 years prior), so too Mark is saying that Jesus is only understood in light of what Isaiah has said (though centuries prior). All of the sudden, Isaiah’s themes of New Exodus, the return of the LORD to Jerusalem, Judgment of the Nations, and the Suffering Servant come into crystal clear vision in the Person of Jesus. The implication for me, is that when I teach this down the road, our first class to two classes most likely will be a pouring over Isaiah (especially Chpt. 40-55), rather than a launch right through the first two chapters of the Gospel. The Old Testament is more than necessary, it is critical to the life of Faith itself because it is critical in our formation of who Jesus is.

Anyway, my vision of God just got 100 times bigger, and I thought I’d share that bit with you all.