Week 7

Ever since I was a child I just saw Jesus as a teacher, not a teacher of wisdom, but just a teacher. I never thought it really made a difference, however, it does. As a teacher your primary target is to “communicate information about their subject matter” (pg 165). In Chapter 7 I think it is very interesting how Borg talks about Jesus being the Teacher of Wisdom. This seems a lot more realistic than him simply being a teacher. When he is a teacher of wisdom he is not simply teaching about the subject. He is teaching with a genre of teaching by different stories and short sayings. Its “content” or “subject matter” focuses on the more central questions of life. I find all of this very interesting because before reading this, I never even thought about it. Simply calling Jesus a teacher does not come close at all to what he actually does. Calling him just a teacher is not specific enough. A teacher of wisdom, on the other hand is. I feel that as a younger child I should have been introduced to the title of Jesus the Teacher of Wisdom and not just Jesus a teacher. It might not seem like that big of a difference to a young child, or to many other people, but it truly is. If you just see Jesus as a teacher you might thing of him more like your high school teacher or something. A teacher of wisdom brings him into a different light.

I also think it is interesting how Borg says there is two different categories for wisdom teachers. It is interesting to see his first category, which is conventional wisdom. Borg says that this is more of a cultural and directional “guidance grounded in the experience of generations” (pg 166). Conventional wisdom seems to cover a lot, according to Borg. It covers etiquette to family roles, and to general values. One of the main messages it portrays is “Follow this way-the wise way, the right way- and your life will go well” (pg 166). I think that this is the central theme that the conventional wisdom portrays. I also feel that conventional wisdom is a very important factor in every day life. It determines the way we would all live together in a culture. With out a consensus of group behavior, we could all not live together. The second wisdom of teaching Borg said was one “that challenges the taken-for-granted cultural consensus of conventional wisdom. I believe that this is important as well. This was more of counter wisdom and it made it unique. When Jesus taught this counter wisdom he made sure what he taught about God was grounded. When he did this it was not grounded in convention or not in socialized convention. This wisdom and teachings were grounded in his experiences of God. All of these experiences made Jesus able to see differently. Both of these types of wisdom I think are equally important. Reading about this also makes me take another look at how I see Jesus. There is no way that he is just a teacher. Jesus is more than a teacher, he is a teacher of wisdom.