Hermeneutics Quiz

I just took the hermeneutics quiz created by Scot McNight. It was an interesting assessment and I actually appreciated the way that it was set up. Like any 20 question quiz that is intended to define who you are, there were limitations. But I cringed far less during this quiz than I usually do when I mark answers.

The quiz is scaled from 1 - 100. Interestingly, I scored a 53 which is the very first number in the "moderate" category. I'm really quite surprised that I didn't fall into a conservative category, but I guess that it was a close call.

Mostly the quiz asks questions about the relationship between the old and new testaments (covenants) and whether we understand the Bible more systematically or communally. There were also some questions about how we interpret some "hard" biblical passages like women's roles and homosexuality. Take the quiz HERE

Rahab and Faith/Works

I was reading the story of Rahab again on Sunday morning. As I looked up other references in the scriptures that talk about Rahab, I saw an interesting connection. In the same way as Abraham, Rahab is actually used as a model for faith and as a model for works of righteousness. I never noticed that before. Her act of hiding the Israelite spies is recorded in Hebrews 11 (traditional faith chapter) and James 2 (Faith without works is dead chapter).

Conclusion: God gave us two noteworthy models of working in faith, a man and a woman. The woman was a prostitute, the man a pagan. God revealed himself to both of them (Abraham by speaking to him in Ur and Rahab by guiding the spies to her door). Both examples were quite passive in this initial meeting. Then they both did something to show that they trusted in the promises that God made to them.

Why the naked guy?

As I was reading the gospel of Mark this morning, I came across a familiar and baffling passage. It is just after Judas comes and betrays Jesus and the mob comes and takes him away. Mark 14:51-53 is given the auspicious subtitle "A Young Man Flees" but basically it states that a guy follows the mob and then runs away, leaving his linen cloth covering behind. Here are the verses:

"And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked." Mark 14:51-53 ESV

Thats all. The passage ends there and the next few verses deal with Jesus before the High Priest. It seems so random. It seems superfluous in the unfolding drama of the week of Jesus' death. Apparently some scholars believe this young man to be the apostle John. I don't know what reasoning was used to posit this however. But Calvin and Matthew Henry both agree that it is placed in the text to show how unruly the mob was. They are so out of control that they pick on a defenseless young man in order to humiliate him. This reasoning seems better than the John interpretation, but it still doesn't seem to make that much sense.

I thought of another interpretation that could be plausible. It seems to me that the point of the few verses that precede verse 51 is to show that everyone is deserting Jesus. Vs. 50 states "And they all left him and fled." The next verses are the one's about the young man. Perhaps the young man is one of Jesus' disciples who just takes a little bit longer to flee him. Perhaps he followed behind the crowd, interested in knowing what was happening to his Teacher so long as he was not identified. The moment that he was noticed, however, he ran away because he was unwilling to endure the same suffering as Jesus. I don't know if this is remotely correct, but it seemed to fit the context somewhat better.