Temple Theology: An Introduction

This book gets four stars because Margaret Barker manages to provide, in one place, some illuminating material related to the first (the Solomonic) temple, its ritual worship, and the theology informing it. We should be grateful to her for her hard work in seeking out and publishing this material!However, although I agree with much (not all) of what she writes, and though she retrieves some things that are far more than helpful to have retrieved, she makes first-temple high-priestly rituals (or rather, her attempted _reconstruction_ of them - that's the key) absolute, and she interrogates the Deuteronomic redaction from that absolute, along with everything else that comes after the Babylonian Exile in the history of Jewish/Christian thought. Everything else that follows in history after the first temple is merely, to Barker, a crater from its impact on the minds of the ancient Israelites.OVERALL, IN SUM it is as if both the present form of the Christian and Jewish liturgies and the traditions (spiritually and historically) of each are treated as both derivative and void of value (or at least interest) if they do not consciously lay hold of, and allow themselves to be informed by, Barker's retrieval. I felt dislodged from authentic time as a result. One must live in the present, with the existential options available now. Margaret Barker does not do this.However, she must be read, because despite her errors, she does pave the way for Hebrew Bible/Old Testament scholarship to really retrieve what was going on in the temple (it was not really magic, and it was not appeasing an angry God), because temple worship is where almost _all_ HB/OT theology emerges from -- maybe all of it (if you disagree, read Fletcher-Louis' article, below, first). I would read at least three essays to help move past this book.First, I would read another article by Barker (available online) called "Atonement: the Rite of Healing." It's much better than this book. You can find it for free on the internet. I read this article before this book, and it's why I bought the book to begin with. The book may be lacking, but the article is quite good, even if it could be summarized in 5 or 6 pages.Second, an _amazing_ text, a scriptural analysis of these themes, available for free on the internet, is provided by Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis (from the University of Nottingham) in an article called "The Cosmology of P and Theological Anthropology in the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira," where he goes through Genesis 1-3 and Exodus 25-40, as well as Proverbs and Job, and shows how they're all related to the worship of Israel in the temple rites. This is the best article in biblical studies that I've read in years, and it might be the _best_ place to start. (In connection to Fletcher-Louis' work, I would strongly recommend reading at least the appendices to Alexander Schmemann's work, "For the Life of the World," which deal with liturgical worship and the epiphanic nature of symbols.) The section in Fletcher-Louis where he mentions the temple's theophanic cloud of incense is wonderful, and reading Schmemann's comments about symbols and sacraments in connection to this and many other points of temple practice (and others, such as the sprinkling of the blood/life of the lamb as the giving of YHWH's blood/life because of the Tetragrammation placed on the goat, which Barker brings up -- see Lev.17:11) is very helpful.Third, I would read Jon Levenson's book "Sinai and Zion," and if you have the time, his book "Creation and the Persistence of Evil."After tackling these, the reader can begin to cover early liturgical texts and better place them in context.A FINAL NOTE, lest these "correctives" give the impression that Barker is not worth reading -- there are less than ten authors whom I have been so impressed by on the first read that afterwards, I went out and bought almost everything they wrote in English. Margaret Barker is one of them, and she is worthy of a good stretch of my bookshelves, and more.

This is the second work of Margaret Barker that I’ve read. At 93 pages of text, it truly is an introduction, and as such it’s a breeze to get through. As with the Great Angel, the last book of hers that I read, the subject is the First Temple but her sources range far and wide. The topics covered are intriguing but very broad. The most interesting parts pertain to the symbolism and beliefs surrounding the holy of holies and Day One of creation, the curtain, the priests’ vestments, and the mercy seat. The idea of the eternal covenant is also novel.Something else of particular interest to me is the conception of the “hwq” and “surot,” or “engraved things” that bind, precede, or exist above the visible creation. Here Barker finds a later analogy in Islam to illustrate what she argues is an Israelite idea, but she need not stray so far from Judaism/Christianity—a similar concept exists in the writings of Maximos the Confessor (6th-7th CE), who writes of the logoi (lowercase, plural) which are brought about by the Logos and which order and guide creation from before time. (See On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ.) Barker’s evidence for an early Israelite equivalent of this idea would challenge the traditional attribution of such ideas to strictly Neoplatonic/Greek developments within Christianity.Even in such a short work, it is difficult not to find at least a few problems. Unfortunately, there are several grammatical errors throughout the book, as well as mistakes that should have warranted another read-through by the editor (such as referring to the second temple in one instance where the first was clearly implied). The book ends abruptly; there is no conclusion. Also, regarding her introduction (i.e., her introduction to this Introduction, pgs. 1-11), while this chapter does lay out some of the framework for what is to follow, it reads as very rambling and it is not particularly focused. These pages are not well cited, and they reference very late and tangential documents in support for her arguments. Luckily, she recovers over the course of the following chapters, which are again up to her usual standard; there her points are well cited and decently argued.In both of her works that I’ve read, I see that Barker has prefaced her research with the caveat that it is still “tentative” and “speculative.” This is true of all scholarship to some extent, but Barker’s tendency to feature this description of her work so prominently causes me some concern. She certainly sounds persuasive, but just how much of this is the result of long and tedious research, and how much of it is her just muddling her way through? This is never clear. To illustrate this, let’s consider the symbolism of the menorah, which was one of the objects inside the First Temple. In the final chapter of this work, the chapter on Wisdom, Barker identifies the menorah as being a symbol of the feminine goddess, relating it to the Asherah and tree/bush imagery. However, I recall specifically from her other book, the Great Angel, that she explained the menorah as representing the manifold (angelic) aspects of the second deity, Yahweh. Which is it? Both? Just this later interpretation? Has she changed her position on this or else has she forgotten her previous commentary? Barker has a frenetic mind, which is part of what makes her work appealing. The reader, however, may desire from her some reconciliation of these often jumbled and interconnected ideas.Overall, I would still recommend this. I know that I will return again and explore more of her works on this subject.

Mrs Barker's writings should be required reading for all who claim to study the Bible (I'd like to say all Christians but that's hoping for too much!) and would-be be theologians. Most of her books are densely packed with technical references to ancient texts beyond the purview of most readers, but here is an accessible overview of her thesis. This is that Christianity is derived from the beliefs of the Israel of the FirstTemple, the doctrine of the Son of God, the Trinity are not later importations but beliefs which were expunged by post-exilic Judaism.One of the main problems shown by MB is that the modern Bible is very different to the scriptures accepted by Jesus and the early church and that the post-reformation church has too readily accepted the rabbinic redaction of the Old Testament.I could say a lot more, but read it for yourself.

This is an intriguing book as it veers at times towards a conspiracy theory of Jewish Temple ideology and secret counter-ideology. It might explain why the Tabernacle in the Wilderness doesn't seem to feature much. However, if the author is right, it explains a lot about the origins of Christian theology. It's good value, too!

This book was recommended to me as a good read. I have to say that I was not disappointed. The subject matter is riveting and thought provoking. Despite the sometimes complexity of the chapters MB has presented her subject in a clear and well ordered manner allowing the reader to grasp the salient points she has raised. I would recommend this book to any serious student.

I am very much absorbed in Miss Barker's thesis .Last year I had the privlegde of meeting her and hearing her present 3 excellent papers.

Barker is not only an independent scholar in the field of Life of Jesus research, but also a Methodist minister as well, which might come as a surprise, since her writing is challenging and revolutionary. Her scholarship is refreshing in the fact that she writes both narrowly as an exegete but also broadly as a historian and which is unique in this field, although none the less challenging and refreshing. Her field of interest covers not just `Life of Jesus' research but also the history and tradition of the Davidic first temple cult and the origins of what became Christianity through to the time of Jesus and beyond.This particular title may be considered as a general introduction to her work and was originally presented as a series of lectures given at Heythrop College, London University in 2003. It is a surprise to learn from her research that Christianity is older than Judaism, but her arguments (which are extensively explained and argued in great detail in her other writings) are solid and clear. Her argument being that Christian theology developed very quickly because it had evolved out of a preceding and fully formed and earlier faith - one which was not Judaism or the faith of the second temple, but the theology of the first, Davidic temple, and to which Jesus and his followers were the successors. She is therefore also parenthetically refuting the usual assumption that a mature Christian theology necessarily developed gradually through a confluence with Greek philosophy and culture.Unlike many academics in this field - and one thinks here of writers such as Dominic Crossan - Barker does not project concepts framed within her/our culture upon the culture that she is researching. Consequently she attempts to explain the researched facts rather than falling into the trap of taking preconceptions drawn from our culture and projecting them upon the one under investigation.This is intended as an introduction to Barker's extensive and ongoing work, much of which is very detailed and challenging to read. Read this one first! Cutting edge.