The worthlessness of Homo divinus

But my acceptance of Adam and Eve as historical is not incompatible with my belief that several forms of pre-Adamic ‘hominid’ may have existed for thousands of years previously. These hominids began to advance culturally. They made their cave drawings and buried their dead. It is conceivable that God created Adam out of one of them. You may call them homo erectus. I think you may even call some of them homo sapiens, for these are arbitrary scientific names. But Adam was the first homo divinus, if I may coin a phrase, the first man to whom may be given the Biblical designation ‘made in the image of God’. Precisely what the divine likeness was, which was stamped upon him, we do not know, for Scripture nowhere tells us. But Scripture seems to suggest that it includes rational, moral, social, and spiritual faculties which make man unlike all other creatures and like God the creator, and on account of which he was given ‘dominion’ over the lower creation.

So says John Stott (quoted by Terry Gray.) Ideas like this seem to be more prevalent and popular now than ever before. If I can paraphrase the idea in my own words it would be that God caused modern man, Homo divinus, to evolve from the aspiritual, non-image-bearing Homo sapiens. There is much disagreement about how quick that process was, whether it happened to one man or a community, and what their moral state was (did they stop their "sinful" ways, or did they continue once they became enlightened?) But the overall idea is the same.

I do not think this idea is even worth our time considering. No one I've seen propose this idea seems interested in doing the Biblical texts justice. Yes there is a broad spectrum of interpretations for Genesis 1-3, from the strictest 24 hour creationist to the allegorical frameworkist. But I think Homo divinus makes all interpretations of Genesis meaningless. What it proposes is so totally different to the text that any interpretation is both possible but also deeply disconnected from reality. It even loses its strength as a polemic, both in ancient times and now (for how can it be one, when it agrees in every detail with the theories of the day?)

Let me give one example to show why I think Homo divinus is worthless. In Genesis 2 God created the first human, Adam. In verse 7 God forms him out of dust and then "breathed into his nostrels the breath of life; and man became a living being." The Homo divinus interpreter would say that this refers to when man first became enlightened. Whether gradually or in an instant, God gives the man/humanity his breath or spirit, and man is made aware of God. It literally says that God inspired man! After this point man is fundamentally different from all the other creations, he is made in the God's image.

But wait a sec, what does the Hebrew say? It says that he became a לנפש חיה, a nephesh chay, or a 'living soul'. חי, chay 'living', is used to refer to all life. It is used throughout the Bible, mostly to refer to living creatures, but sometimes also to 'living water'. נפש, nephesh 'soul', refers not just to humans, but also animals. It is used through Genesis 1, in Genesis 9 when God gives the command to never eat blood, and then in the foundational Leviticus 17 which expands on that commandment, calling blood the "life (nephesh) of all flesh." Genesis 2:7 could just as literally be translated to say that "man became a living animal."

How can the Homo divinus interpreter read this meaningfully? They can't interpret it literally of course, that goes against the whole idea that Homo divinus wasn't created directly from dust. But how can they interpret it allegorically either? Yes God did inspire man at that time, but the end result was that man would be a living animal, exactly what he was before. Man's enlightenment produces no changes, or at least none the author of Genesis 2 thought worth mentioning. I'd be interested in hearing other interpretations of this passage, but I can't see how a Homo divinus interpretation could do it justice, when even interpreted in the most ahistorical way possible the Hebrew words just go against their whole premise.

Don't waste your time with Homo divinus. It's a pathetic attempt at an interpretive framework.

First translation

So I thought I'd practice some translation for my upcoming exam. Here's Luke 15:8-9:

8 Ἢ τίς γυνὴ δραχμὰς ἔχουσα δέκα, ἐὰν ἀπολέσῃ δραχμὴν μίαν, οὐχὶ ἅπτει λύχνον καὶ σαροῖ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ ζητεῖ ἐπιμελῶς ἕως ὅτου εὕρῃ; 9 καὶ εὑροῦσα συνκαλεῖ τὰς φίλας καὶ γείτονας λέγουσα· συνχάρητέ μοι, ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμὴν ἣν ἀπώλεσα.

Ἢ τίς γυνὴ δραχμὰς ἔχουσα δέκα,
Okay, so the first thing I noticed was ἐχ, our favourite verb stem meaning to have. So I should be looking out for two nouns, one nominative and one accusative. γυνη is a singular nominative noun, which I looked up and means woman. δραχμας is a plural accusative which means silver coins.

I looked up δεκα cause I didn't know it. It's an adjective meaning ten, which is really obvious considering our English prefix deca-...

That leaves the first two words: ἠ τις. The first is a particle meaning something like or, and τις is an interrogative pronoun.

So my translation:
Or which woman having ten silver coins

ἐὰν ἀπολέσῃ δραχμὴν μίαν,
This time our silver coin is singular, but still accusative. Following it is an adjective meaning one.
ἀπολεσῃ looks like a feminine singular dative noun, apparently it's actually a subjunctive verb meaning destroy or lose.
And ἐαν means if.
There's no explicit noun here, but the verb has a 3sg form, so the subject is (probably) the woman.

Updated translation:
Or which woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin

οὐχὶ ἅπτει λύχνον
οὐχι is a negative marker. I thought I remembered learning οὐ in a class but I couldn't find it on our workbook...
-ει looks like a 3sg-PRES verb suffix, and the verb means ignite.
-ον is the m-sg-ACC suffix, and the noun is candle.

Or which woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, doesn't light a candle

καὶ σαροῖ τὴν οἰκίαν
σαροι is a verb meaning sweep.
την οἰκιαν is easy: the house (accusative).

Or which woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, doesn't light a candle and sweep the house

καὶ ζητεῖ ἐπιμελῶς
ζητει: verb seeks
ἐπιμελως: adverb diligently, carefully

Or which woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, doesn't light a candle and sweep the house and carefully search

ἕως ὅτου εὕρῃ;
ἑως: until
οτου: relative pronoun
εὑρῃ: finds

Or which woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, doesn't light a candle and sweep the house and carefully search until she finds it?

καὶ εὑροῦσα συνκαλεῖ τὰς φίλας καὶ γείτονας λέγουσα·
εὑρουσα: same verb stem as above, but with a different suffix. It's an "aorist" and a participle. Wikipedia tells me that probably means a past event
συνκαλει: call together, assemble. present tense, indicative
φιλας: friends
γειτονας: neighbours
λεγουσα: says

And when she finds it, calling together the friends and neighbours, says

συνχάρητέ μοι, ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμὴν ἣν ἀπώλεσα.
συνχαρητε: rejoice with
ὁτι: because, since
εὑρον: find, aorist 1sg
ἡν: relative pronoun
ἀπωλεσα: lost, aorist 1sg

And when she finds it, calling together the friends and neighbours, says "rejoice with me because I found the silver coin which was lost."

That's not great English though. So here's a rewrite:

Or which woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one, doesn't light a candle, sweep the house, and carefully search until she finds it? When she finds it she calls together her friends and neighbours and says, "Rejoice with me because I found the lost coin!"

Brief wrap-up

Mission in Japan was such an amazing experience. There are so very few Christians there (about 1 in 5000 where we were) that even the little we did was a huge help to the Japanese church. What did we do? We visited many preschools, ran a lot of English classes and helped the missionaries as they planted two new churches.

It taught me a few things: the huge cultural differences did not matter to the Gospel, these people are sinners and need to be told about Jesus and shown God's love. But the cultural differences also showed how mission must be made culturally appropriate, both in Japan and home in Australia. Most people in Australia are unwilling and opposed to talking about God and the gospel. Japan was very different in that so many people were willing to listen and ask questions about Jesus and the Bible, for to them it is almost entirely new. But despite how much interest they show and how much they learn, the Japanese people are sadly reluctant to confess Jesus and commit their lives to him. In Australian culture verses like Romans 10:9 are not too significant, for almost everyone who believes the gospel will confess Jesus. But in Japan they will not. We met a few who even after more than ten years contact with the church and learning and believing far more than many Australian Christians, will still not commit to and confess Jesus. Whether they feel pressured from their families or work or just don't want to, I don't know. But it is sad and something that definitely needs a lot of prayer.

Pizza!

We had a pizza party last Saturday, inviting a lot of people we've met over the past few weeks. I guess the evening brought together a lot of the feelings and thoughts I've been having over mission. Sorry if those thoughts are a little disorganised!

I don't have any Japanese language skills. I can greet people at all times during the day, thank people and apologise... though even with these I'm likely to get them mistaken with each other! So I knew before coming that my opportunities to directly evangelise people would be very limited, and that's okay, those opportunities are more than enough with everything else there is to do!

And there really has been, and will still be, a lot to do. If I can guess what God is teaching me now I think a lot of it is how to serve. I know I definitely do not have the gift of service, but I'm realising that just means I need to work harder than most. I usually don't mind helping and serving others, it just doesn't occur to me that there's stuff to be done. Well I'm glad that there's been so much to do here cause there hasn't been much chance to slack off - there's so much to do and that's why we're here! Working long busy days has been good, it's a very welcome change in productivity, one I've been wanting for a long while.

However, even when God has given me potential opportunities for evangelism, it seems I rarely take them. At our pizza party I spent most of the evening operating the huge 300° ovens (Fahrenheit okay... but it still sounds impressive yes? We seriously needed six layers of towels to get anything out of it.) I'd already burnt myself once and there was no reason for others to get hurt too. I was definitely being a big help, we needed to cook a lot of food very quickly. But... there were people there who had some decent English, and I could have spoken to them more than I did (what was almost nothing). Should I have? I don't know. When we had a kind of icebreaker game I did make my answers gospel-focused, but that was very short and impersonal. It concerned me more when those who can speak Japanese said they didn't have gospel-focused conversations either. Maybe I should have been more forward too.

But I also don't believe I really have gifts of evangelism either. I don't really enjoy it nor am I good at it. I think my strengths, and interests and passions, are more with teaching and discipleship. I haven't really had much experience with it yet, but I love both teaching God's word and working with people. I had hoped there would be opportunities for this in Japan, but there hasn't been any so far. The church here does not seem to have late-teens/early-twenties guys. There are a few girls of that age, but it would be even less appropriate here in Japan than in Australia for a guy to lead a girl in discipleship like that. So I'll probably have to wait to return to Australia to do that, which again is fine, but when I wonder what God's plans are here, a little perplexing.

Mission has given me lots of opportunities for service, which has been great. But I think it's really highlighting the need for wisdom in finding a good balance between service and evangelism and fellowship and teaching and everything else (rest too.) They're all essential for a healthy church, and though God gives us gifts and strengths in certain areas of that, I believe we still all need to be working at them all. But what is that balance? I don't know if mission has given me any of that wisdom yet.

What can a bookstore teach you?

For someone who knows probably less than ten Japanese words and maybe five Hiragana what can Japanese bookstores offer? Most can't offer me much of anything, though Lighthouse Books, the Christian bookstore at Itayanagi Chapel, has given me a challenging and encouraging insight to Japanese Christianity. Like everything in Japan the store is small, though packed with many well-produced resources. The kids books were especially impressive, they all looked bright and colourful (also, they were the only books I could understand! Pictures, hurrah!) These books would definitely be well received as gifts.

But when I remembered that this store has to serve two prefectures, the small size makes a big difference. We're very blessed in Australia to have so many Christian books and resources, at so many stages of Christian life, from pre-Christian to new believers to the hundreds of books for mature Christians and even Bible college students. We have so many that we can even spend a great deal of time debating the finer theological points of each. It doesn't look like the Japanese people have such a luxury. There were just not that many books in total, and though I couldn't tell what they were about I would guess that most were on the basic end of theological depth. That's not a bad thing, it fits where the Japanese church is at the moment. But as the Japanese church continues to grow many more books will need to be written, expanding on both the range of topics and depth in each.

The situation is similar for Bible translations. There is one translation in archaic Japanese (like our KJV), another like our NASB which does use modern Japanese but has many uncommon words and is generally hard to understand and finally there's a paraphase which may not always be theologically accurate. Hopefully another translation in normal simple Japanese will be written soon.

So if Lighthouse Books has given me two things to pray for, it's that we praise God for the many great resources that are already available, and ask him to bring talented authors, editors and publishers into the church to serve the future. Join me in prayer!

Orientation

Well now I'm in Japan, and have just finished OMF orientation. We've spent a couple of days learning a tiny amount of the language and a bit more about Japanese culture and religions.

But first some observations about Japan. The thing that I found most surprising was how small the streets are! They are very narrow and tight, and have so little traffic. I knew a lot of people took the trains, but I guess it really must be the dominant method of transportation, aside from walking and biking. The train stations are huge and the trains are probably twice as long as in Brisbane... so they can fit a lot more people in.

The food is pretty decent and some is moderately priced, though tomatoes aren't! I went to the supermarket today, and they seemed to be close to 100 yen each, about four times what I thought, though I must have misread the sign. Which is not surprising as I can't read Japanese, but I'm sure it said 98 not 398!

The people are very lovely, quite and polite. They really do keep their country beautiful, and they put ours to shame. Which makes what we learnt in orientation all the sadder. The Japanese people value their traditions hugely, especially so in the area of religion. The two largest religions in Japan are Shinto and Buddhism, though they seem to have somewhat merged together here. What is sad though is that even though it's been estimated that only around 5% of the people actually believe these religions are true, they pretty much all still participate in their practices. To not follow these practices is to go against tradition and to be un-Japanese. This is especially the case with ancestor worship. In Japan it is believed that when you die you become a new Buddha, and so to not follow the practises is to show disrespect to your ancestors and family, even when the people know it's not true.

We visited a Buddhist temple today, and one thing I noticed were what seemed to be prayers for sale. For 100 yen you could buy a paper prayer to tie around a cable nearby. Surely these people must realise that a religion where you can buy prayers, and at such a low price, cannot be true! But as those leading the orientation told us, truth is not always valued highly here. Even if a person understands and even agrees with the Gospel, they may not personally accept it as that would mean they would have to stop following several of their traditions. Being Japanese and following the traditions is so important to these people.

Please pray that even though I am completely unprepared, I may still be able to help the Japanese church here, and the same for the rest of my team. Pray that the people might understand that truth does matter, and that the Gospel transcends culture and accepting Jesus does not mean rejecting their Japanese identity. And praise God for the wonderful work he is doing in so many of the churches here!

And we're off!

And now I'm leaving! 54 days in the crazy crazy happy land of Japan!