Re: Naked Bible 130: Conference Interviews Part 3
Heiser interviews David Burnett regarding his paper, “Death, Resurrection, and Transformation in Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15”. This has to do mostly with how the Septuagint and New Testament documents interplay via the Greek language.
In Deuteronomy 4:15ff, Moses remarks that, at no time did they see God’s form in the fire (or the cloud). This is a well known ancient concept that there is no way to depict the Creator of all things. Keep in mind that the business with the golden calf was not to worship the calf itself, but depict it as the mount upon which an invisible deity rode. Thus, Moses says not to make any graven images (idols) of anything on earth as a substitute for God’s lack of form.
The Septuagint uses the term eikon as “image”. It’s the same term used in Genesis, in that you and I are the eikon or “image” of God. This is where He offers that list of things for which Israel must not create an image or likeness. And when they gaze into the skies, they shall not feel awed and seek to worship those things up there.
Notice that Moses does not forbid them making any eikon of those celestial bodies. Keep in mind that, in the Hebrew language, any reference to the visible stars and planets is shorthand for God’s staff in Heaven — elohim and so forth. We’ve seen how the Ark of the Covenant had “images” of those beings (cherubim and seraphim), so they weren’t forbidden to make such images, but forbidden to worship them.
Paul taught the resurrection of humans, something Greeks sneered at because they could not imagine the existence of a spiritual realm separate from this realm. In 1 Corinthians 15:35ff, we noted in a previous lesson that Paul echoes Deuteronomy 4 but doesn’t copy the list exactly because he’s talking about resurrection, not idolatry. Instead, Paul refers to the different kinds of bodies that God has given various creatures. He refers to heavenly (eternal) bodies and mortal bodies. Then he mentions the various celestial bodies. Next, Paul moves onto how resurrection is not a silly myth, as many Greek scholars of his day alleged.
Paul then refers to how our mortal existence is like a seed sown. Our mortal form is related, but bears no resemblance — no eikon — to our resurrected/eternal form. He still echoes something in Deuteronomy 4 in that we should not make images of mortal things to worship them. And while we could make representative images of eternal bodies, we still don’t worship them, either.
Why not? We are slated to replace them.
The imagery in 1 Corinthians 15 is all about seeds planted, dying, and then being reborn as something else. This is parallel to the passage in Deuteronomy 4 where Moses warns the people of Israel to remember that they were taken from the smelting furnace (Egypt) and brought out as what survived the fire. God was in that fire with them; He was the fire. They were the treasure, they were themselves an eikon of what He intended for humans in this world. It was “already but not yet” making them imagers of God. This is parallel to the concept of Paul’s death-burial-resurrection imagery via planting seeds for crops.
The OT Chosen were a symbol of the NT Elect. They were to be His testimony as a nation of flesh; we are His testimony as a nation of hearts. We are being made into the eikon of Christ. Our eternal form will see us replace those beings who have sought to seduce us to worship them. Putting materials into a furnace was part of the process of making an eikon that pagans would worship. We are in the New Exodus.
Luke 9:31 — Jesus discusses with Moses and Elijah His “departure”. Luke uses the Greek term for “exodus” on purpose. Jesus would descend the mountain and go through death, but come out the other side in His eternal body. Thus, Paul has answered the questions in 1 Corinthians 15 regarding the process toward resurrection. We die in the flesh, we germinate for a time, then spring to life eternal. We once bore the eikon of mortal humanity, but we shall then bear the eikon of eternal life, same as Christ.
