Biblical Theology from a Zen Master/Punk Musician

Posted by Troy | Filed under Books, Faith

zen-wrapped-in-karma

As a guest on “To the Best of Our Knowledge” last week, Zen Master Brad Warner made a comment that caught my attention:

We are born and we die constantly, the “me” who existed a minute ago is dead and gone, and here “I” am, and I’m something else… possibly.
Which has a relation to what I was a minute ago, but isn’t the same thing.

It reminded me of that passage in the Bible that says “old things are passed away, all things have become new”

And I’m not sure of the verb tense, but I wonder if it is saying “old things are continually passing away, and all things are continually becoming new”

(Hopefully some of my Greek-geek readers can chime in on the verb tense)

If so… then somehow this Biblical concept that has always been difficult for me to comprehend was made a little clearer this week by this Zen philosophy of perpetual death and rebirth.

I recommend listening to this interview and the full program on TTBOOK website archives. 

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Permalink | September 10th, 2009

3 Responses to “Biblical Theology from a Zen Master/Punk Musician”

  1. jeff Says:
    September 10th, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    it is the greek aorist tense, indicating a one time past event that definitely happened….which is comforting.
    In other words, if anyone is in Christ, he is (not becoming, but already is) a new creation. The old has (already) passed away, and the new has (already) come.

  2. Jon Henry Says:
    September 10th, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    The first verb is Aorist Tense (“passed away”). While Aorist doesn’t necessarily mean the same as Past Tense (i.e. there are plent of Aorists that signify present or future events), it is typically used to portray a historical event.

    The second verb is Perfect Tense (“have become”). This is practically always used to portray something that is chronologically past, even moreso than Aorist.

    So these two verbs in context with one another, it’s safest to say that Paul is trying to portray an event he deems historical.

  3. Troy Says:
    September 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    Well that settles that… much of Strong Odors is me just wondering…

    but it seems to me there is a relative teaching in the Bible…

    a constant dying to self and rebirth in Christ… which explains our current struggle…
    maybe 2 Corinthians 4:16 would be a better reference??

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