The Case for God (58 page)

82.
The Wisdom of Solomon
7:25–26.

83.
Philo,
The Special Laws
1.43.

1.
Douglas Harman Akenson,
Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds
(New York, San Diego, and London, 1998), pp. 19–209.

2.
Ibid., pp. 319–25.

3.
B. Shabbat 31a in A. Cohen, ed.,
Everyman’s Talmud
(New York, 1975), p. 65. Some authorities attribute this story to another rabbi.

4.
Aboth de Rabbi Nathan I. N, 11a in C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, eds.,
A Rabbinic Anthology
(New York, 1976), pp. 430–31.

5.
Sifra on Leviticus 19:11 in Samuel Belkin,
In His Image: The Jewish Philosophy of Man as Expressed in Rabbinic Tradition
(London, 1960), p. 241.

6.
Genesis 5:1 in Montefiore and Loewe,
A Rabbinic Anthology
, p. xl.

7.
Mekhilta on Exodus 20.13 in Belkin,
In His Image
, p. 50.

8.
B. Sanhedrin 4:5.

9.
Baba Metziah 58b.

10.
Arakim 15b.

11.
M. Avoth 6:1; Michael Fishbane,
The Garments of Torah: Essays in Biblical Hermeneutics
(Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1989), p. 77.

12.
M. Pirke Avoth 3:3 in Montefiore and Loewe,
A Rabbinic Anthology
, p. 23.

13.
J. Hagigah 2.1.

14.
Midrash Rabbah 1.10.2 in Gerald Bruns, “Midrash and Allegory: The Beginnings of Scriptural Interpretation,” in Robert Alter and Frank Kermode, eds.,
The Literary Guide to the Bible
(London, 1987), p. 627.

15.
Matthew 5:39–48; 26:53; Luke 22:34.

16.
1 Corinthians 15:3–8.

17.
Acts 4:32–5; Matthew 5:3–12; Luke 6:20–23; Matthew 5:38–48; Luke 6:27–38; Romans 12:9–13, 14; 1 Corinthians 6:7; Akenson,
Surpassing Wonder
, p. 102; Paula Fredricksen,
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity
(London, 2000), p. 243.

18.
Matthew 5:17–19; Luke 16:17; 23:56; Galatians 2:11–12.

19.
Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31; see Romans 13:10.

20.
Acts 2:1–13.

21.
Acts 8:1, 18; 9:2; 11:19.

22.
Isaiah 2:2–3; Zephaniah 3:9; Tobit 14:6; Zechariah 8:23.

23.
Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:16; Fredricksen,
Jesus
, pp. 133–35.

24.
i Corinthians 1:22.

25.
Mark 13:14; Daniel 9:27.

26.
Mark 11:15–19; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11.

27.
Matthew 18:20.

28.
I have discussed this more fully in
The Bible: A Biography
(London, 2007), pp. 55–78.

29.
Luke is traditionally held to be a gentile, but there is no hard evidence for this, and his gospel gives a more positive account of Judaism than any of the others.

30.
Luke 24:13–35; Julia Galambush,
The Reluctant Parting: How the New Testament’s Jewish Writers Created a Christian Book
(San Francisco, 2005), pp. 67–68; Gabriel Josipovici, “The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles,” in Alter and Kermode,
The Literary Guide to the Bible
, pp. 506–7.

31.
Philippians 2:6–11.

32.
Philippians 2:2–4.

33.
Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1; see Romans 8:14–17; Galatians 4:4–7.

34.
Matthew 7:11.

35.
Mark 6:3.

36.
Mark 6:4; see Luke 24:19.

37.
Romans 1:4.

38.
Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; see Psalm 2:7.

39.
Matthew 17:5.

40.
See, for example, Luke 8:25; Matthew 8:10; 13:58; 15:28.

41.
Mark 9:24–25.

42.
This has been explored exhaustively by Wilfred Cantwell Smith in
Belief and History
(Charlottesville, Va., 1977) and
Faith and Belief
(Princeton, N.J., 1979), and I rely greatly on his thesis in these pages.

43.
Mark 11:22–23.

44.
Oxford English Dictionary
, 1888; Smith,
Belief in History
, p. 110.

45.
Smith,
Belief in History
, pp. 41–44.

46.
All’s Well That Ends Well
, act 2, scene 3, line 59.

47.
E. P. Sanders,
The Historical Figure of Jesus
(London, 1993), pp. 133–68; Fredricksen,
Jesus
, pp. 110–17; John Dominic Crossan,
The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus
(San Francisco, 1998), pp. 302–4.

48.
Geza Vermes,
Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels
(London, 1973), pp. 69–78.

49.
Matthew 17:20.

50.
Mark 1.44; 8:26; 7:36.

51.
Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4.

52.
Luke 7:11–17; see 1 Kings 17:9, 17–24.

53.
Mark 6:52.

54.
Matthew 14:33.

55.
Matthew 14:27–31; 16:21–33; 26:46.

56.
Matthew 12:28; Luke 10:17.

57.
Deuteronomy 30:12.

58.
Baba Metziah 59b in Montefiore and Loewe,
A Rabbinic Anthology
, pp. 340–41.

59.
Fishbane,
Garments of Torah
, pp. 64–65.

60.
B. Menahoth 29b.

61.
Midrash Rabbah on Numbers 19:6, in Bruns, “Midrash and Allegory,” p. 632.

62.
Eliyahu Zatta 2.

63.
Bruns, “Midrash and Allegory,” p. 629.

64.
Fishbane,
Garments of Torah
, p. 37.

65.
Ibid., pp. 22–32.

66.
Jacob Neusner,
Medium and Message in Judaism
(Atlanta, 1989), p. 3; Jacob Neusner, “The Mishnah in Philosophical Context and Out of Canonical Bounds,”
Journal of Biblical Literature II
(Summer 1993); Akenson,
Surpassing Wonder
, pp. 305–20.

67.
Louis Jacobs,
The Talmudic Argument: A Study in Talmudic Reasoning and Methodology
(Cambridge, U.K., 1983), pp. 20–23, 203–13.

68.
B. Baba Batara 12a.

69.
Jaroslav Pelikan,
Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages
(New York, 2005), pp. 67–68.

70.
Akenson,
Surpassing Wonder
, p. 379.

71.
B. Qedoshim 49b; Smith,
What Is Scripture? A Comparative Approach
(London, 1993), pp. 116–17.

72.
John 1:1.

73.
Origen,
On First Principles
4.2.9, in G. W. Butterworth, trans.,
Origen: On First Principles
(Gloucester, Mass., 1973).

74.
Origen,
On First Principles
4.2.7.

75.
Origen,
(On First Principles
4.1.6.

76.
Origen,
On First Principles
preface, 8.

77.
Mark A. McIntosh,
Mystical Theology: The Integrity of Spirituality and Theology
(Oxford, 1998), pp. 42–43.

78.
Origen, commentary on John 6:1, in R. R. Reno, “Origen,” in Justin S. Holcomb, ed.,
Christian Theologies of Scripture: A Comparative Introduction
(New York and London, 2006), p. 28.

79.
Smith,
What Is Scripture?
, p. 19.

80.
F. L. Cross, ed. and trans.,
St. Cyril of Jerusalem’s Lectures on the Christian Sacraments: The Procatechesis and the Five Mystagogical Cathecheses
(London, 1951).

81.
John Meyendorff, “Eastern Liturgical Theology,” in Bernard McGinn and John Meyendorff, eds.,
Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century
(London, 1986), pp. 353–56.

82.
Mystagogical Cathechesis 3:1. Cross translation.

83.
Theodore,
Ad Baptizandos
, Homily 13:14 in Wilfred Cantwell Smith,
Faith and Belief
(Princeton, N.J., 1979), p. 259.

84.
Smith,
Faith and Belief
, pp. 37–47.

85.
The Message of the Qur’an
, trans. Muhammad Asad (Gibraltar, 1980), 3:64–68; 10:36;41:23.

86.
Qur’an 92:18; 9:103; 63:9; 102:1.

87.
Qur’an 90:13–20.

88.
Toshiko Izutsu,
Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’an
(Montreal and Kingston, Ont., 2002), pp. 127–57.

89.
Qur’an 29:61–63; 2:89; 27:14.

90.
Qur’an 7:75–76; 39:59; 31:17–18; 23:4547; 38:71–75.

91.
Qur’an 15:94–96; 21:36; 18:106; 40:4–5; 68:56; 22:8–9.

92.
Izutsu,
Ethico-Religious Concepts
, pp. 28–45.

93.
Ibid., 68–69; Qur’an 14:47; 39:37; 15:79; 30:47; 44:16.

94.
Qur’an 25:63.

95.
Qur’an 2:89; 16:33; 27:14; 2:34; 2:146. W. Montgomery Watt,
Muhammad at Mecca
(Oxford, 1953), p. 68.

96.
Qur’an 3:84.

97.
Qur’an 12:11; 5:69.

98.
Qur’an 5:48.

99.
Qur’an 24:35.

100.
Qur’an 29:46.

101.
Qur’an, 22:36–40; 2:190.

102.
I have discussed this at length in my biography
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
(London and New York, 2006), pp. 163–80.

1.
Clement,
Exhortation to the Greeks
4.63.6; Jaroslav Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine
, 5 vols. (Chicago and London, 1971–89), 1:36.

2.
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
30.9.

3.
John 1.14.

4.
John 1.3.

5.
John 1.1.

6.
Proverbs 8:22.

7.
Robert C. Gregg and Dennis E. Groh,
Early Arianism—a View of Salvation
(London, 1981), pp. 20–28.

8.
G. L. Prestige,
God in Patristic Thought
(London, 1952), pp. 146–56, 197–223; Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition, 1
:194–210; Gregg and Groh,
Early Arianism;
Rowan Williams,
Arius: Heresy and Tradition
(London, 1987); Andrew
Louth,
The Origins of Christian Mysticism: From Plato to Denys
(Oxford, 1981), pp. 76–77.

9.
David Christie Murray,
A History of Heresy
(Oxford and New York, 1976), p. 46.

10.
John Meyendorff, “Eastern Liturgical Theology,” in Bernard McGinn and John Meyendorff, eds.,
Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century
(London, 1986), p. 354.

11.
Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition
, 1:200.

12.
Arius,
Epistle to Alexander
2; Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition
, 1:194.

13.
Athanasius,
On the Decrees of the Synod of Nicaea
8.1; Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition
, 1:195.

14.
Athanasius,
Against the Arians
2.23–24.

15.
Ralph Norman, “Rediscovery of Mysticism,” in Gareth Jones, ed.,
The Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology
(Oxford, 2004), pp. 456–58.

16.
Athanasius,
Against the Arians
1.18 in W. G. Rusch, ed.,
The Trinitarian Controversy
(Philadelphia, 1980), p. 78.

17.
Athanasius,
Against the Arians
1.28, ibid., p. 84.

18.
Athanasius,
On the Incarnation
54; Louth,
Origins of Christian Mysticism
, p. 78.

19.
Pelikan,
The Christian Tradition
, 1:201–4.

20.
The so-called Nicene Creed was not written at Nicaea but at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

21.
Maximus,
Ambigua
42 in Andrew Louth, trans.,
Maximus the Confessor
(London, 1996).

22.
Maximus,
Ambigua
5.

23.
Pierre Hadot,
Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault
, intro. and ed. Arnold I. Davidson, trans. Michael Chase (Oxford, 1995), pp. 129–32.

24.
Kallistos Ware, “Ways of Prayer and Contemplation: Eastern,” in McGinn and Meyendorff,
Christian Spirituality
, pp. 395–401.

25.
Evagrius,
On Prayer
67, 71 in G. E. H. Palmer, P. Sherrard, and K. Ware, eds. and trans.,
The Philokalia
(London, 1979).

26.
Evagrius,
On Prayer
120.

27.
A. J. Moore,
Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St Macarius the Egyptian
(London, 1921), pp. 116, 122.

28.
Louis Bouyer, “Mysticism: An Essay on the History of the Word,” in Richard Woods, ed.,
Understanding Mysticism
(New York, 1980), pp. 42–44.

29.
Sarah Coakley, ed.,
Rethinking Gregory of Nyssa
(Oxford, 2003); Louth,
Origins of Christian Mysticism
, pp. 80–95.

30.
Gregory,
Commentary on the Song of Songs
12.1037, trans. C. McCambley (Brookline, Mass., 1987).

31.
Gregory,
Commentary on the Song of Songs
11.1000–1001.

32.
Gregory,
The Life of Moses
2.24, trans. A. J. Malherbe and E. Ferguson (New York, 1978).

33.
Gregory,
The Life of Moses
2.165.

34.
John 1.1; Basil,
On the Holy Spirit
, ed. and trans. C. F. H. Johnston (Oxford, 1892), pp. 8–9.

35.
Basil, Epistle 234.1.

36.
Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:18.

37.
Norman, “Rediscovery of Mysticism,” p. 258.

38.
Prestige,
God in Patristic Thought
, pp. 76–300; Pelikan,
The Christian
Tradition, 1
:52–67, 172–226; Thomas Hopko, “The Trinity in the Cappadocians,” in McGinn and Meyendorff,
Christian Spirituality
, pp. 261–73; Lars Thurberg, “The Human Person and the Image of God: Eastern,” ibid., pp. 292–308; Raimundo Panikkar,
The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man
(London and New York, 1973); John Meyendorff,
Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes
(New York and London, 1975), pp. 131–80.