A double
entendre (literally: double meaning) is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised
to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first (more surface) meaning
is straightforward and direct speech, while the second meaning is indirect and "underneath the surface" and usually the real intention behind the bare words.
Oriental cultures, Middle Easterners, especially Iranians, use
this kind of language and technique all the time in their poetry and their
culture of “saving face” and “honor vs. shame”; has made them over the
centuries experts at “indirect speech”.
Jesus is
indirectly claiming to be God, using an eastern method of indirect speech; but
westerners think it is straight forward speech.
On the Unbelievable Radio program, on October 10, 2009, there was an excellent discussion between James
Crossley and Richard Bauckham, about his book, Jesus and the God of Israel.
Muslims love to use Richard Bauckham to try and cast doubt
on the NT and the gospels. While
Bauchkam is not an inerrantist, and not as conservative as I am or as Dr. White
is; Bauchkam is hardly a good source for Muslims to use, because on this
particular radio discussion, Bauchkam believes Jesus is claiming to be
God in Mark 10:17-18.
Shabir Ally and Paul Bilal Williams use some quotes from
Bauckham as somehow trying to show that the gospels are not reliable and
changed, yet in this program, Bauckham takes Paul Williams’ favorite passage
(Mark 10:17-19) and demonstrates that Muslims are wrong on its meaning. Williams brings up Mark 10:17-19 many times at his own blog. see here:
Update to this article, Sept. 28, 2015: I took out the old url of Paul B. Williams old blogs, because there is some kind of malware/scam there.
(No longer available as Williams keeps changing his blog; several times. One time he even left Islam for a few days and then came back and repented.) Williams new blog, as of Jan. 2015, is www.bloggingtheology.net
and here, What must I do to be saved? (no longer available)
and here, "Why do you call Me good? (no longer available)
In all three of these articles, he leaves out verses 23-27.
At Williams' three different blogs which he has changed, if you could look around, it seems that he has a blog article on Mark 10 or the gospel of John and/or liberal scholars every several blog articles. He especially likes Mark 10:17-19 about "Why do you call Me good?" or about "keep the commandments", and seeing that from a Muslim viewpoint, he thinks Jesus said that in order to teach that someone is able to keep the law and be saved. His Islamic worldview has blinded him from seeing the real meaning of this great passage, especially if one reads all the way until verse 27. Of course, only the Holy Spirit can lift the blinders off sinners' hearts.
Williams constantly quotes the Mark passage, but always leaves out verses 23-27 in his polemics. Williams constantly uses Mark 10:17-18 to try and say that Jesus is denying His Deity; and he constantly uses Mark 10:19-22 to try and say that Jesus teaches that salvation comes by obeying the law of God. He is wrong on both accounts. By leaving out verses 23-27, Williams is avoiding the deeper meaning of why Jesus approaches the rich young ruler the way He does. We will address that issue later, Lord willing.
Update to this article, Sept. 28, 2015: I took out the old url of Paul B. Williams old blogs, because there is some kind of malware/scam there.
(No longer available as Williams keeps changing his blog; several times. One time he even left Islam for a few days and then came back and repented.) Williams new blog, as of Jan. 2015, is www.bloggingtheology.net
and here, What must I do to be saved? (no longer available)
and here, "Why do you call Me good? (no longer available)
In all three of these articles, he leaves out verses 23-27.
At Williams' three different blogs which he has changed, if you could look around, it seems that he has a blog article on Mark 10 or the gospel of John and/or liberal scholars every several blog articles. He especially likes Mark 10:17-19 about "Why do you call Me good?" or about "keep the commandments", and seeing that from a Muslim viewpoint, he thinks Jesus said that in order to teach that someone is able to keep the law and be saved. His Islamic worldview has blinded him from seeing the real meaning of this great passage, especially if one reads all the way until verse 27. Of course, only the Holy Spirit can lift the blinders off sinners' hearts.
Williams constantly quotes the Mark passage, but always leaves out verses 23-27 in his polemics. Williams constantly uses Mark 10:17-18 to try and say that Jesus is denying His Deity; and he constantly uses Mark 10:19-22 to try and say that Jesus teaches that salvation comes by obeying the law of God. He is wrong on both accounts. By leaving out verses 23-27, Williams is avoiding the deeper meaning of why Jesus approaches the rich young ruler the way He does. We will address that issue later, Lord willing.
Bauckham on “why do you call me good?”
I am not going to type out every word
in this section of the interview; I invite the reader to listen to the whole
thing. However, I want to include key
phrases and sentences of Bauckham, and intersperse with my own comments.
Beginning at the 43:31 mark – Richard
Bauckham – “can I come back to Mark ?
because
in Mark chapter 2 – who can forgive sins but God alone?”, he is “expressing
precisely one of these uniquely divine qualities” - qualities of God .
Mark
6 – “What kind of man is this who the wind and waves obey his voice? Only God can rule the chaos - Order out of
chaos; a very OT idea about God.”
Mark
10:17 ff – “Why do you call me good, only God is good. Actually works the other
way, Jesus is good, so Jesus is God. Bauckham
calls this a “wonderful double entendre”, and “if you are not thinking, you would say
that Jesus is saying I am not God”; but Jesus is actually trying to get the
rich young ruler to think about true goodness.
Thus, Bauckham is confirming the orthodox position of how to interpret
this passage. Jesus is not denying that
He is good or God, but in an indirect way, Jesus is actually claiming to be
God. In effect, Jesus is saying, “If you
recognize Me as good and call Me good, then you should see that I am God, since
only God is good.” But the man didn’t
really understand absolute goodness.
Mark
14:61-64
This
is a very clear passage that Jesus is claiming Deity. Even the Jews know that the Messiah is going
to be “the Son of the blessed one”! The
Jews know Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7:13-14 and Proverbs 30:4 and Psalm 110:1 and
Daniel 7:13-14.
Jesus
quotes from Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13-14 and the Jewish leaders tear their
robes and say that Jesus has committed blasphemy by claiming to be the Messiah,
the Son of God. Jesus also said, “I am”
( ego eimi = εγω ειμι ) in verse 62. Muslims and other skeptics like to make a big
deal about the “I am” statements in John, and they claim that there are none of
them in the Synoptic gospels. Well, here
is one. Mark 6:50 is another “I am”
statement.
Bauckham
says the clear claim of deity is there in Mark, so it is not only in the gospel
of John, as some, particularly Muslims are saying, but the Deity of Christ is
clear in Mark also.
Dr. White’s recent Five sermons on
the Gospel according to Mark:
In his first message, “The Bookends
of Mark” – he shows that Mark 1:1 (the Son of God – for an article about the textual variant here, see this.) and Mark 15:39 (“truly this man was the Son of
God!”) – the centurions’ confession that Jesus is “the Son of God”,
demonstrates Mark’s purpose of testifying that Jesus is the Son of God, the
Messiah. Dr. White made a great point
about the Roman Centurion and his familiarity with death, in Mark
15:43-45. The Roman Centurion better be
sure Jesus was dead, since he had to give testimony to Pilate himself. If he was wrong, he would have been
executed. The seriousness with which the
Romans dealt with soldiers and guards who did not do their job well is seen in
Acts 16:27. The Philippian jailor was
about to kill himself, because he had fallen asleep earlier, and he thought
that Paul and Barnabas had escaped in Acts 16:27, after the earthquake.
There are a lot of nuggets there that
Dr. White brings out in these five sermons.
Because Muslims are not only using liberal scholars, but now they are
using (and abusing) more conservative scholars to attack the New Testament and
the gospels, we need to equip ourselves to be “ready to give an answer for the
hope that is within us” to Muslims, and take up our cross in discipleship. (see Mark 8:34-38)
For two other articles on the
unity of the gospel of Mark and the Deity of Christ in Mark, see here, and on the testimony to the resurrection of Jesus in Mark, see here.
Credit goes to someone named "Monty" in the aomin chat channel, a few days ago (last week); for pointing to this particular Unbelievable Radio program, the discussion between Bauckham and Crossley.
Credit goes to someone named "Monty" in the aomin chat channel, a few days ago (last week); for pointing to this particular Unbelievable Radio program, the discussion between Bauckham and Crossley.
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