Friday, January 08, 2016

Palestine and the Gospels But No Truth

There's a book entitled "Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible Through Palestinian Eyes", and here's a description:


"In this short work aimed at the lay reader, Raheb, a writer, preacher, and president of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem, covers an impressive range of ancient and modern Palestinian history to set geopolitical context for the writings of the Bible. Raheb...calls out misconceptions by outsiders about the culture and its texts while eloquently advocating for greater attention to that culture when interpreting the Bible, in particular to the long legacy of empire in Palestine and the people’s response to repeated occupations. This is a rarely heard perspective on the Bible...


with an epilogue. Raheb states that the book’s aim is “to lay the groundwork for a genuine Palestinian Christian narrative that is politically relevant and theologically creative” (6). The volume introduces a new understanding of the biblical narrative and of the mission of Jesus, in which the Palestinian context today serves as a hermeneutical key to understanding the original context and content of the Bible. Palestinian Christians are themselves, after all, an important continuum from biblical times to the present, whose narrative sheds a unique light on the biblical story (6–7)...Raheb attacks the myth of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” and the “creative type of hardline evangelical Christian” (24) that, together with the Arab and Western powers, have shaped the dominant culture responsible for the Palestinian plight (26–27). Postcolonial theory and Edward Said’s Orientalism provide the platform for the Palestinian liberation theology’s rejection of Jewish nationalism (27–29). The rejection of the idea that “the modern state of Israel [stands] in some continuity to biblical Israel” is the basis for the Palestinian Christian resistance movement (35). 

Here's another description, however:

The truth is that in that book Raheb shows not only quite an ignorance about the Bible and its composition making statements that would disqualify the book from being discussed in any academic context; but also he has repeatedly expressed views about the Jewish people that are quite racist.

and added there is that 

Raheb promoted a ‘Palestinian Theology’ that purports that Jews are not the Chosen People and therefore have no right to the Holy Land. In a March 2010 address, he said: ‘Actually, the Palestinian Christians are the only ones in the world that, when they speak about their forefathers, they mean their actual forefathers, and also the forefathers in the faith … So, that is the reality of the peoples of the land. Again, they aren't Israel...

No wonder it's a short book.

"Palestine" does not appear in the New Testament books.

Judea does.  Samaria does.  Land of Israel does. 

But the author, we are informed, has won a prize, if shared:


The Olof Palme Memorial Fund in Stockholm, Sweden has announced that the 2015 Olof Palme Prize has been awarded jointly to Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, author and columnist for Haaretz
Between Raheb and Levy, who is worse?

____________

UPDATE

On the Islamic persecution and slaughter of Christians - in November last.



3 comments:

Thor said...

I disagree with anonyous, the current conflict is all about territory, as time passes it will be more and more clear. The Jews had a chance to show that they were beyond the same but they did not. Sadlyl

Thor said...

Live and let live

Thor said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAVn4-17Bjs