Jeremy L. Berg

Most colleges and university programs have favorite professors who sometimes have long waiting lists to get into their most popular classes. When I was an undergrad at Bethel University (1998-2002), one such class was “The Life & Teachings of Paul” taught by Dr. Michael Holmes. (The only class in the Bible & Theology department that was more popular was “God, Evil & Spiritual Warfare” taught by Greg Boyd & Paul Eddy, because they told stories about Satanic attacks and demonic manifestations! It’s hard to compete with that!)

Dr. Holmes’ class was notorious for one dreaded but effective assignment. We had to do a detailed outline of every single letter of Paul in the New Testament, identifying the main topics and subtopics of each chapter, and getting a handle on the overall organization of his thought. The kicker: We were to avoid consulting commentaries in which wise scholars with many letters after their name had already done this work for you.

Almost 20 years after doing that assignment, I can still tell you the main subject matter associated with most chapters of Paul’s letters. Test me sometime!

I’m in Chicago for my doctoral studies this week exploring teachers and students, orality and textuality, literacy and illiteracy in the ancient world, and boring you with some insights from class and excerpts from ancient writings. Dr. Holmes’ assignment is somewhat similar to something out of the didactic playbook of ancient Jewish teacher, Philo of Alexandria. Philo is a fascinating dude who was a contemporary of Jesus and Paul.

Philo of Alexandria  (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE), was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo used philosophical allegory to harmonize Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy. His method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy. His allegorical exegesis was important for several Christian Church Fathers, but he has barely any reception history within Rabbinic Judaism. He believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would stifle humanity’s perception of a God too complex and marvelous to be understood in literal human terms (Wikipedia).

Philo of Alexandria emphasizes the role of “teachers” in education, where even the texts themselves are teachers. He recommends the practice of copying down by hand the holy Scriptures as a powerful way of learning them. I love his enthusiastic description of this practice and his overflowing desire to wield his knowledge of the Scriptures like a royal scepter.

Why did he take the time to painstakingly copy down the words of the law in a day when writing with parchment and ink was no easy task?

“I did it in order that after I had recorded these things in a book, I might at once proceed to impress them on my heart, and that I might stamp upon my intellect their divine indelible characters:  other kings bear scepters in their hands, and sit upon thrones in royal state, but my scepter shall be the book of the copy of the law; that shall be my boast and my incontestable glory, the signal of my irreproachable sovereignty, created after the image and model of the archetypal royal power of God” (From Special Laws 4.160-165).

Perhaps we would benefit from simply writing out entire chapters of scripture during our devotional time, or even better, writing out our own paraphrase of a section, putting Paul or Peter or Jesus’ ideas into our own words. Perhaps, recovering this ancient practice would help us “impress them on our hearts” and “stamp their indelible characters upon our intellect.”

May the Word of God be your “boast and incontestable glory” today!