Tag: Dr. Michael Barber

Anonymous Gospels?

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AnonymousThis week I heard a talk on the Gospel of John by Dr. Michael Barber at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

In the early part of his talk, Dr. Barber discussed the question of authorship of the Gospel. He mentioned how modern sceptical scholars often say that the Gospel was originally anonymous, and that the text “The Gospel according to John” was a later addition. I have often heard claims such as these, so I was delighted to hear Dr. Barber present some potential problems with this position…

The main issue in asserting that the Gospel was original anonymous is that the manuscript evidence does not support this hypothesis at all. Where the manuscripts survive, we find the text present. Not only that, there are some other problems which flow from this…

If the original Gospel was anonymous and the association with St. John was a later development, why don’t we find divergent attributions? Since St. John is not identified as the author within the narrative itself, surely one would expect many divergent attributions to develop? Why was the Gospel never associated with, say, St. Peter? The obvious answer is that the text “The Gospel according to John” was in there from the beginning.

If the sceptics are right, the text had been copied as an anonymous Gospel and distributed throughout the Empire. Why is it that manuscripts from all these different regions bear the text claiming Johannine authorship? It would have been an impossible task to gather up all these different manuscripts retrospectively in order to “fix” them with an agreed-upon author, particularly since they were in different languages (Greek, Latin etc). Once again, the simplest explanation for consistency in all these manuscripts in all these areas in all these languages is simply that the text “The Gospel according to John” was in there from the beginning.

These reasons, coupled with the universal testimony of the Early Church Fathers, should give us great confidence that, from the very beginning, this Gospel opened with the words “The Gospel according to John…”

TOT: Apocalypse Now?

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MBLast month, Dr. Michael Barber gave a talk at Theology On Tap.

Dr. Barber has spoken at Theology On Tap several times in the past (“Understanding The Mass” and “Spiritual Lessons About Politics”), as has his wife (“Mary, Saints, Angels and More!”).

Attached below is the audio of Dr. Barber’s latest talk, entitled “The Book of Revelation and the Mass”, where he deals with some of the misconceptions concerning this final book of the Bible, as well as its connection to the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist with which we’re all familiar:

Main Talk (Download)

Q&A (Download)

If you like what you hear, I’d thoroughly recommend you purchase his book Coming Soon, which is my favourite commentary on the Book of Revelation.

Coming Soon: The Liturgical Apocalypse

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The third chapter of Dr. Barber’s book he discusses the relationship between the Book of Revelation and the Catholic Liturgy. It is a brief review of the the material covered in another excellent book by Dr. Hahn’s book, The Lamb’s Supper.

Familiar Imagery & Structure

Dr. Barber begins by noting that no other apocalyptic book of antiquity relies quite so heavily on liturgical imagery as the Book of  Revelation. In John’s book we find many things extremely familiar to a Catholic who attends Mass: Sunday worship, priests, vestments, incense, chalices, angels, saints etc.

In fact, the book of Revelation has profoundly impacted Christian liturgy and architecture throughout the centuries.  For example, the celebrant’s chair is symbolic of the throne of God, and the surrounding chairs like those of the “elders” (Revelation 4:4).

This final book of the Bible is even divided into three parts which each have parallels with the sequence of the Catholic liturgy:

1. Penitential Rite
The early section of Revelation concerns seven letters which call the Church to repentance.

2. Liturgy of the Word
Later, a book is opened which brings about judgement.

3. Liturgy of the Eucharist
The book ends with the Church being united to Christ in the supper of the Lamb.

But why use liturgical imagery? Revelation uses liturgical imagery because the Eucharistic celebration is the way the Lord comes to His Church. Dr. Barber points out that the Greek word “parousia” which is used to refer to the Lord’s “coming” actually has the primary meaning of “presence”. Upon hearing this fact, every Catholic immediately thinks of the Eucharist and Jesus’ real presence in the Sacrament.

“Every Eucharist is Parousia, the Lord’s coming” – Cardinal Ratzinger

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Coming Soon: Was Jesus wrong?

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In Revelation, Jesus says that He is “…coming soon” (Revelation 22:20). However, it is now 2,000 years later and we haven’t yet had the Second Coming. Dr Barber, in the second chapter of his book, addresses the obvious question: “Was Jesus wrong?”.

How soon is soon?

Some exegetes solve this problem of Jesus’ absence by pointing to St. Peter’s second epistle:

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day – 2 Peter 3:8

These exegetes make the argument that Jesus is indeed coming “soon”, but our version of “soon” is not the same as His.

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