The Outsiders
An example of recursive Biblical repetition inspired by Tim Mackie from the BibleProject
“Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear…” —Jeremiah 5:21
Last week, a couple of my friends and I got an opportunity to tour the BibleProject studio in Portland, Oregon. One person we got to meet was their in-house Hebrew scholar named Aaron. After our time together, Aaron sent me some YouTube videos of a Hebrew Bible Conference hosted by Multnomah University a couple of months ago. This video in particular by Dr. Andrew Teeter, professor of Hebrew Bible studies at Harvard Divinity School, on Biblical or recursive symmetries as seen in Genesis 1 blew me away. However, the video that inspired today’s article is actually this one by Tim Mackie, co-founder of the BibleProject, in which Tim lays out the principle of repeating patterns.
Detecting recurring motifs is a basic introductory skill every believer must develop in their own personal study of scripture. Once you begin to notice recurring words, phrases or symbols, you’ll start pinpointing them in different stories and scenes throughout the entire Biblical corpus. In fact, this is the primary means by which the Bible hyperlinks itself and how Biblical exegesis should be performed. Biblical repetition offers modern readers a deeper understanding not only of the worldview and theology of the ancient authors but also a better theological understanding of Yahweh, himself.
In the aforementioned video, Tim takes a few minutes to describe a repeating pattern in which (1) an outsider becomes an insider & (2) an insider becomes an outsider. In Joshua 6:20-24, we encounter an outsider prostitute named Rahab who originally lived in Jericho, a city marked for judgement, who was saved because she trusted Yahweh and who became so much of an insider that she is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ himself. One chapter later, we read the inverse, where an insider named Achan did not heed Yahweh’s word because he did not trust him and who later was destroyed by becoming an outsider of sorts. In short, Rahab, an original outsider, became an insider and Achan, an original insider, became an outsider.
Mackie then demonstrates (in the picture below) how in the book of Jonah, this same motif repeats in several aspects. First, the scene and etymological structure of Joshua 7 and Jonah 1 are virtually identical. Yahweh’s anger is kindled against the insiders, Achan & Jonah, they both hide their plunder or themselves, and eventually lots are cast and they are found out.
Secondly, in both stories the outsiders, Rahab in Joshua and the sailors in Jonah, demonstrate humility and are spared accordingly:
Yesterday, I was reading John 9 and immediately saw the same pattern on repeat once again in this New Testament gospel narrative. Let’s pick up the story in verse 1:
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The blind man, or the obvious outsider, was made whole and brought to stand before God-incarnate as an insider to the wonderous working and miraculous power of God.
In the second half of the story, we see the ultimate insiders, the pharisees, becoming outsiders to the plan and workings of God:
The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
The blind man’s parents were completely bewildered at the blindness of the religious scholars and rabbis who were supposed to see and acknowledge God’s power at work in front of their very eyes. And in verse 30 we hear the blind man himself exclaim in an exasperated manner, “Now this is remarkable!” How is possible that a physically blind man can clearly see God’s hand at work while the lifelong students are blind to the son of God?
Which brings up another repeating motif in scripture - having eyes and not seeing and having ear but not hearing. This recursive pattern deserves a post dedicated to it exclusively but I’ll leave one thought on this. The Pharisees elevated the law, which is a good thing, to the highest level, above the Creator who gave the law. In so doing, they turned the law into an idol and whenever you worship created things rather than the Creator, you will reflect the thing you are worshipping. The law is deaf, dumb and mute apart from love, and so the pharisees became deaf, dumb and mute without the love of God.
And lastly, in the last part of this chapter, watch how Jesus explicitly calls out this recurring pattern as seen in Joshua, Jonah and now in and through Jesus himself.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
Did you catch Jesus words in verse 39? At the 26-minute mark, Tim Mackie says a profound observation that fits in this story as well: “Really what matters is how one responds to the word and instruction of Yahweh and how each person responds to the word and instruction of Yahweh determines one’s covenant relationship to Yahweh.” In other words, to become an insider with God, you don’t have to be born into a specific family, you don’t have to have the right pedigree or prestige, you don’t have to be a certain skin color, heritage or ethnicity. All you have to do it trust him at his word. However, those that see but fail to acknowledge that Jesus is LORD, will become blind.