After the events of 586 B.C. when the Babylonian Empire laid siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the city, killed the inhabitants, demolished the Temple and dragged off many of the Jews into Exile, the community of Jews worked, ate, slept, studied and lived in a foreign land. The modern equivalent for us would be if the Islamic terrorists were able to lay waste to most of our country, and you, with some of your friends, were dragged off to live in their land, under their authority and forced to learn their culture.
After living under these conditions for at least 70 years, many of the generations born in Exile knew little if anything of the original Hebrew language. After their return to the land of Israel the community did not resume all of their prior cultural practices, including the use of the Hebrew language. The language they spoke was Aramaic. It was the international language of the day, and it would be the language that Jesus would learn to speak.
Elders in the community continued to read the Torah to the community in Hebrew. As they read, however, they would pause to loosely paraphrase what they had just read in Aramaic. This long-standing practice was eventually put into writing, and the Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrews scriptures are today called Targum.
The Targums were not translations of the original language, but they were paraphrases. They did not seek to make a word-for-word or phrase-for-phrase Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew scriptures. Metaphorically speaking, they took the old vocal track and laid it over a very new, contemporary arrangement of the song. The new song remains in the same key, keeping faithful to the original, but it is “re-mixed” for the contemporary ear.
What I am about to do is engage in the ancient Jewish practice of producing a targum. I will type the passage of I Corinthians 1:18-31 to you in the ESV translation of the original Greek, but then I will type a targum of the same text. I seek to remain faithful to the original key of the tune, but I hope to put the old tune into a new arrangement that will be more suitable to your contemporary ear.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
18For the word of the cross is(A) folly to(B) those who are perishing, but to us(C) who are being saved it is(D) the power of God. 19For it is written,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20(F) Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?(G) Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For(H) Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ(I) crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ(J) the power of God and(K) the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26For consider your calling, brothersLL) not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But(M) God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;(N) God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even(O) things that are not, to(P) bring to nothing things that are, 29so(Q) that no human being[b] might boast in the presence of God. 30And because of him[c] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us(R) wisdom from God,(S) righteousness and(T) sanctification and(U) redemption, 31so that, as it is written,(V) “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
And now for the targum…
Our culture tells us there are several levels of importance when ranking people. The beautiful, the intelligent, the rich, the famous and powerful people are the most valuable ones, but the ugly, stupid, the poor and the weak are the least valuable ones. But those lines are very artificial; they are imposed upon our imaginations by Hollywood, the media, magazines, shopping malls and all the idols or images of the “good life” our culture puts forth.
However, YHWH draws the line between people in a very different place. If you want to find out how God ranks people, just start telling the gospel. Whenever you tell someone about the Messiah – God that died on a cross and rose from the grave in order to establish his own Kingdom and inaugurate an entirely new creation – you are bound to get one of two reactions. Those two differing reactions will show you the line that YHWH has drawn between only two kinds of people. There are unimaginative fools that want to go on believing what their culture tells them about the “good life” and how to get it, and there are the newly created, highly imaginative, people who care nothing for what their culture tells them about the “good life.”
After all, YHWH made this very point to Israel through the prophet Isaiah. If you recall your World History class, the Southern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Babylon, at YHWH’s request. It was His judgment against them for hundreds of years of rebellion. It was YHWH’s kindness that motivated Him to send the prophets to warn Israel and get them to repent. But oddly enough, they did not repent. They foolishly, but wisely in their own eyes, thought that YHWH would surely never destroy His own Temple, His own land and His own people. Through Isaiah, YHWH assured them that the work of God would indeed, “destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate the discernment of those who think they are smart.”
YHWH thought it fitting and appropriate to deal with a rebellious humanity by letting them have their own way. It is as if God said, “Adam and Eve, you want to ‘know good and evil, becoming gods?’ Fine. Be as wise and intelligent as you can be; try your best to be god. You’ll figure out pretty quickly how unable you are.” God thought it deeply ironic that in a world lost in its own violence and oppression He would come to them as one under their violence and oppression. He utilized an even greater sense of irony in his plan to restore fallen humanity and the chaotic cosmos by submitting to the “wise,” violent and oppressive culture of the 1st century and allowing them to do the worst they could to him upon the cross. His crucifixion would appear to be a great victory for the forces of evil, but that same act of shame, torture and violence would in fact be their own undoing. See, it is through the cross and resurrection that the powers of oppression are unseated from their pretentious position of power, and it is Jesus that now occupies the throne at the right hand of God. This is the good news we preach.
You see, this is the problem. The world ignores anything that cannot fit their understanding of rationality or their idea of a slick, culturally cool, well-presented message. There are some that will not give the good news a fair hearing because they insist that the claims be proved, using the scientific method. The gospel refuses to be shaped by the paradigm of the elitist scientists. After all, who are we to make God the object of our inquiry, as if He will submit to our microscopes and test tubes. Their vision and method for discovering “truth” is way too small and narrow. YHWH stands above their god-like claims to see objectively all “real” facts.
There are others that want fast clipped edited video, edgy music, flashing lights, cool logos and a 30 second sound bite piece of entertainment before they buy into anything. Our culture is quite okay with a Jesus that is my buddy, a nice guy to model, and if that kind of Jesus can be put into slick packaging well that’s even better. But the Messiah of the Gospels refuses to be squeezed into that mold. He refuses to let humans make Him into their image, calling us to be re-made in His.
All this to say…just tell the gospel. It will sound absolutely ridiculous to one kind of people, but once in a while you’ll run across the other kind. For example, look around at the people in this room. Not very many of you would stack up to well against the “best” the world has to offer. Who among you can compare themselves to Bill Gates, Steven Hawking, Megan Fox, Robert Pattinson or Pete Wentz. As I said before, wealth, intelligence, beauty and fame are no measuring rod for what it means to be human. Don’t play their game; you cannot win, even if you appear to win.
To be truly human is to become adopted. If you have been adopted by YHWH through Jesus’ efforts then you have something to be truly happy about…go tell everyone about it. If you have been crowned a prince or princess in the Kingdom of YHWH you have something real to be proud of…go tell everyone about it.
When you tell people about your coronation or adoption they’ll think your nuts. After all, the gospel is outright rebellion against our society. That’s okay. They don’t have the official rulebook for what constitutes insanity or rebellion. Keep the gospel simple and plain; it has all the power in itself to do what God wants done.
This poem by Matthew Bellamy captures well how we need to see reality and our culture as members of an alternative Kingdom.
Paranoia is in bloom,
The PR, transmissions will resume
They'll try to, push drugs that keep us all dumbed down
And hope that, we will never see the truth around
(So come on)
Another promise, another seed
Another, packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed
And all the, green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless, red tape to keep the truth confined
(So come on)
They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
So come on
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