Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘The wise love to know better, do better and be better’

Worship & Music class on biblical dialogue, dissonance and debate has a look at Wisdom literature

August 17, 2023

Photo by Alexandra Fuller via Unsplash

Wisdom, as found in the biblical books of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes — and in other places too — is all about the human condition, Creation and nature, moral character, navigating life and experience.

It is, Dr. William Brown said during his recent class on Dialogue, Dissonance and Debate and affirmed by a class member who worked for years in the food service industry, not the same as knowledge.

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit,” Brown said. “Wisdom is knowing that a tomato does not belong in a fruit salad.”

Or, as another class member said, it’s the distinction between information and formation.

Brown, who teaches Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, taught at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference being held at Montreat Conference Center.

“My powerful definition of wisdom is circular: Wisdom imparts wisdom!” Brown said. “Wisdom kept to oneself is a secret.”

In Jeremiah 8 and 9, the prophet condemns the wise, imploring them not to boast in their wisdom. “It’s the cardinal sin of wisdom — self pride,” Brown said. “Their wisdom prevents them from knowing God.”

According to Proverbs, wisdom comes from home, as indicated twice in Chapter 1 and twice again in Chapter 23.

But it also comes from other sources. Proverbs 22:17 through 24:22 borrows heavily from Egyptian wisdom found in the Instructions to Amenemope, which are dated 1200–1075 BCE, centuries before the Book of Proverbs was written. That source “was so well known, we might say today [that section of Proverbs] was plagiarized,” Brown said.

Scribes and sages “reached beyond their culture to borrow from others,” Brown said. “Wisdom is not confined to any one culture.”

Dr. William Brown teaches Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Proverbs introduces itself — in a way that’s akin to a course syllabus — in 1:2–7, Brown said. Righteousness, justice and equity are the moral virtues the wise seek.

The proverbs themselves are mostly oriented to the young. Brown asked: How do wise elders fit into the scheme? “Let the wise also hear and gain in learning,” Proverbs 1:5 says. “It never ends. Something new will always come about,” Brown said. “The wise are not given a graduation ceremony when it comes to wisdom. When you think you are quintessentially wise, maybe that’s the sin of seeing yourself wise in your own eyes.”

Wisdom is described in Proverbs 4:1–8 as a possession and in 4:11–12 as a pathway that never ends. The wise can fail, but according to 24:16, they “rise back up and keep on truckin’,” Brown said. “They learn from their mistakes.”

Proverbs 9:7–9 talks about not rebuking the scoffer, but instead rebuking the wise, who will love you for it.

“Rebuke is a harsh term. Nobody wants to be rebuked,” Brown said. “Grad students get rebuked. I have felt that, and I am all the wiser for it. The wise welcome rebuke. Being corrected, they know they will become wiser still.”

“Challenge” or “critique” can be substituted for “rebuke,” he said, making the process “a brave dialogue for the sake of the other’s growth. Moral growth is often a painful growth. The wise love to know better, do better and be better.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Dr. William Brown’s Worship & Music class, Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
So Jung Kim, Associate, Theology, Theology & Worship, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Shawn Kang, Associate, Central & West Regions, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of shelter and home. Challenge us to find ways to extend this gift as we work together to create just, sustainable communities for all. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Discrepancies in the legal system are nothing new

They date back at least to the time of the Torah, Dr. Bill Brown tells his Worship & Music Conference class

August 14, 2023

Dr. Bill Brown is shown teaching his Dialogue, 

Dissonance & Debate class at the Presbyterian 

Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music 

Conference. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Moving on from Creation to the Torah, Dr. William Brown recently made the case that the current struggle to determine what’s concrete in, say, the interpretation of laws under the U.S. Constitution was vexing for folks in Old Testament times as well.

Brown, who teaches Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, taught the Dialogue, Dissonance & Debate in the Bible class for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference held at Montreat Conference Center.

Brown shared examples of legal discrepancies between the Decalogue in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, which he called “Moses rehearsing for a new generation.” In the former, for example, male slaves are to be released after six years. In the latter, male and female slaves are released after the same interval, and reparations are to be paid. The rules for returning a neighbor’s property are more numerous in Exodus than in Deuteronomy. That fifth book of the Hebrew Bible “moves more ethically into how to better observe these stipulations,” he said.

“It’s not written in stone. They’re timely laws open for revision,” Brown said. “Torah is not dead. It’s a living Torah,” sort of like the whole debate on the U.S. Constitution. “Is it dead? Do we need to get back to the intent of [the founders] or is it a living document? Torah leans toward the latter.” Most remarkable, he said, is that the laws in Deuteronomy are preserved as well as the older laws. “That suggests they both have legitimacy,” Brown said. “It’s up to us to apply.”

One example that shows the law is not fixed is the Numbers account of the daughters of Zelophehad. The five daughters protest a law that says they can’t inherit after their father dies, and Moses says he’ll take up the matter with God. God tells Moses the daughters are right, “and a new law is formulated on the spot to make sure inheritance is retained and received by the daughters,” Brown said. “It’s a pointed illustration of the dynamic of law.”

Photo by Taylor Flowe via Unsplash

But there’s also Deuteronomy 12:32, which is a warning from Moses not to add to or take anything away from the law. A Jewish scholar who’s a friend of Brown says that Moses “was kidding. So, take it from a Jewish scholar,” Brown said. The warning “may be Deuteronomy’s way of claiming legitimacy.”

For Jesus, of course, it’s about setting priorities: “It’s all about loving God and loving neighbor,” Brown said.

As he’s done in previous class sessions, Brown turned to the psalms for further explanation, even proposing the theory that the latter part of Psalm 19 was rewritten to lift up the importance of Torah.

“It’s a speculative thesis. Not everyone agrees with me,” Brown said.

Nevertheless, Psalm 19 is “a beautiful meditation on Torah but it never says what Torah is,” he said. “It talks about the benefits of Torah, and it’s open-ended.” Whatever restores, enlightens, enlivens and gladdens — that’s Torah, Brown said of the psalm.

“It’s a much more operational definition of Torah,” Brown said, “that veers away from the legalistic view.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Dr. William Brown – workshop at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
José Lamont Jones, Mission co-worker, Democratic Republic of Congo, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Ray Jones, Director, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

O god of mercy, grant the faith and courage to proclaim the gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ. Anoint the new believers with your grace, that they may experience the abundance of life found only in you, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - It’s humanity’s job to ‘help Creation flourish in all its beautiful diversity’

Dr. William Brown goes to the psalter to help explain competing accounts of Creation

August 10, 2023

Dr. William Brown, Professor of Old Testament at Columbia 

Theological Seminary, is leading a class called Dialogue, 

Dissonance & Debate in the Bible” at the Presbyterian 

Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference. 

(Photo by Rich Copley)

In the beginning, Dr. William Brown said recently, God created a dialogue.

“It has everything to do with our place and our role in Creation,” said Brown, Old Testament Professor at Columbia Theological Seminary, said during the second installment of his “Dialogue, Dissonance & Debate in the Bible” course at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference  held at Montreat Conference Center.

Brown’s translation of Genesis 1:2 includes God’s breath hovering over the face of the water. “The longer you hold your breath, the greater the urge to let it out,” he said. “It’s God’s breath that drives the unfolding of Creation, every day for six days.”

In verses 26–27 we find “a unique passage for Genesis 1. Only humankind is invested with the image of God, the risk or privilege of exercising dominion,” he said. As for the “let us make humankind in our image,” Brown said the Christian tradition proposes that it’s the Trinity at work. But this writing in Genesis is of course pre-Christian. In the Jewish tradition, Wisdom is at work. In the ancient world, it’s a divine council at work, angels and other divine beings, Brown said.

When God commands plant life to appear, God says to let the Earth produce vegetation. For marine life, God says let the waters produce swarms of living creatures. For land animals, it’s “let the Earth create them.”

“I’d say with who’s involved in ‘let us make humankind in our image,’ why not the Earth and waters as well. They’ve always been involved,” Brown said. “God does not like to work alone. It’s a corporate, collaborative project — not just for humanity, but all life, created in collaboration with other agents. That’s a pretty cool account of Creation — God working with others.”

For the Priestly author of Genesis 1, language about the image of God “includes you and me. We are all made in God’s image. The Priestly author is democratizing the language of the image of God,” Brown said. “I like the image of God working democratically and collaboratively.”

Photo by Calvin Craig via Unsplash

If we’re all bearers of the royal image of God, we’re also to exercise dominion over creatures of God. “How has that worked out so far?” Brown asked. Lynn White, the son of a Presbyterian pastor, wrote a 1967 article for Science magazine called “The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis.” White said it’s “God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.”

Brown said he believes “this is correct in the way Genesis 1 has been used for domination and exploitation. It has been received as a license to exploit, a license to kill, for products and luxury and affluence in the world. Some of our Christian siblings believe that if we use up all our resources, we can usher in the second coming. There is such a thing as dominion theology,” Brown added. “I consider that our greatest theological heresy today.”

To rescue the word “dominion,” take a look at Psalm 72, Brown suggested, a psalm he said is a job description for the king. “The king is supposed to care for the poor, champion the needy and crush the oppressor,” he said. “That gives us a whole new twist on Genesis 1. Thanks be to God for Psalm 72! You can’t read texts in isolation — even the Creation texts.”

Brown concluded his talk by showing a gif depicting three views of Creation. In one, humanity is at the top of a pyramid. The second has us in a line of many species. The third shows all the creatures in a circle, which made Brown think of Psalm 148, where “the call goes out for all Creation to give praise,” Brown said.

It’s humanity’s role to integrate the dominion model, the servant model and Psalm 104. “Creation has to be flourishing to give praise to God, and humans have to enable Creation to flourish,” he said. “It’s a journey that ends with an ecology of praise. We have a distinctive role in Creation. We have to help Creation to flourish in all its beautiful diversity.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service, Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Dr. William Brown, speaking at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Alonzo Johnson, Coordinator, Self-Development of People, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Carlton Johnson, Associate Director, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord our God, we thank you for calling us to be your people. We pray that we may in gratitude extend your love to the many who still need your touch. We ask that you will reveal your will for us daily and grant us the grace to yield to the prompting of your Spirit and to walk in your will. Amen.