Een mooie Sjawwal-maand: Hoe goed een beetje minder kan zijn!

'De islam bestaat niet..' zegt men dan wel, omdat moslims zo verschillen. Vandaag is het dus weer eens bewezen: de Turkse moslims vieren vandaag de 1e sjawwal, want dat is zo berekend. Maar de Marokkaanse gemeenschap hield het op de noodzaak om een kleine stukje van de nieuwe maan gezien te hebben. Dat is kennelijk ook in Marokko over de droge onbewolkte woestijn uiteindelijk ook gelukt ondanks eerdere berichten. Dus toch gezamenlijk feest vandaag!
Voor allen: moge het tot zegen en vreugde zijn. Vrede en welvaart in families, onder oude en nieuwe Nederlanders, onder de moslims zelf, in Syrië en Libië, ook tussen Sunni en Ahmadi moslims in Indonesië.

Op verschillende manieren was het deze Ramadan wat minder: minder iftarmaaltijden. Er was minder subsidie voor de groots georganiseerde met speeches vooraf, die tot verbroedering moeten leiden. Het was ook laat in de avond: in het begin van Ramadan was er pas iftar om 21.45 en dat liep terug na kort na negenen. Zelfs als je vanaf 12 uur 's middags vastte, was dat toch al een stevige periode. Overigens vond ik het zelf best prettig om een tijdje minder te doen. Niet alles hoeft te groeien, misschien zelfs de economie niet (tenminste niet voor veel mensen in Nederland).



Een mooi Ramadangeschenk was enkele dagen geleden de aankomst van de dissertatie van Fredrik Doeka uit Kupang, Oost/Indonesië. Hij heeft een boek vol verrassingen geschreven over de rijke Mozes-traditie, bij Indonesische moslims en christenen. Zij zijn ook verbonden in waardering en belangstelling voor een van die kleurrijke grote personen van de mensheid, die wel een enkele keer in de fout ging (opvliegend, sloeg beetje onschuldige Egyptenaar dood; wilde God zelf wel zien) maarjuist zo ook een mooi voorbeeld voor allerlei mensen is geworden.
Fredrik Doeka promoveert hierop in Utrecht, dinsdag 20 september 2011, 12.45 precies in de Senaatszaal van de Aula van de Universiteit aan het Domplein in Utrecht. Van harte welkom. Dat zou een mooi slot van het suikerfeest-lebaran-idul fitr zijn.

Bij Idul Fitr wensen horen verontschuldigingen. Natuurlijk dat rare woord Nederlands op de titel: toch een zetduiveltje bezig geweest. Mohon maaf lahir batin! A'udhu minal syatanil rajim!

Dr. Agus Setiabudi and reading of the Old Testament

Yesterday, 5 August 2011, Agus Setiabudi defended his doctoral dissertation at the Theological School of Kampen, officially the PThU, Protestantse Theologische Universiteit. The title of the dissertation is:
Taking its Shape. Towards an Indonesian Old Testament Theology. The book discusses the four volume work by Christoph Barth, son of the famous Karl Barth, who for about 25 years taught in Indonesia, Banjarmasin and Jakarta. His Theologia Perjanjian Lama is still reprinted and used at theological schools in Indonesia. Setiabudi analyzed this book, the English translation and some 20 dissertations by Protestants scholars of Indonesia. He concluded that the very strict orthodox theology of Christoph Barth is somewhat altered by the Indonesians: they have more feeling for the value of local traditions and do not see the Old Testament as an isolated truth, towering above all the sins and nonsense of human people, but try more to write biblical interpretation in harmony with their culture. This is a nice description of recent history of Indonesian Protestant theology.
Several readers were surprised to see that a similar book: Walter Lempp's multi-volume Tafsir Perjanjian Lama was not taken into consideration. In fact the two scholars share the same academic and spiritual tradition. Several readers were also surprised that the Catholics were not mentioned at all: no Cletus Groenen, John Prior, Stefanus Darmawijaya (with his nice comparison of the panakawan and the ebed Jahwe or Servant of God) and nothing about the much younger Jesuit Deshi Ramadhani.

Setiabudi wants a specific Indonesian Old Testament Theology and writes at various placed in his book that Islam must be an important context for Bible Interpretation. But I am afraid that he knows very little about the strong biblical background of the Qur'an, little about the extensive reference to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus in the basic text of the Muslim community. In fact, biblical scholars could have an important role in the Indonesian contextual theology, but the European tradition is so strong, that not yet much can be seen here.



Gerrit Singgih will receive an honorary doctorate in Kampen in December. Congratulations! Gerrit was co-promotor in Kampen. Above he is shown together with Barend Drewes, for many years teaching New Testament interpretation in Indonesia.

There is a famous Latin proverb: Timeo hominem unius libri. It must be translated as: I fear someone who only reads/sticks to one book. Scripturalism is the word coined by Clifford Geertz for any style of orthodoxy that claims to return to the text of one book alone. In reality, it is always new interpretations that rise. We should be realistic and not stick to one book alone, Bible or Qur'an.

The Jesus Verses

In 2006 I published a book on the Jesus Verses in the Qur'an. It has a translation of the 100 verses about Jesus, a commentary related to the context of the various surah's and some suggestions for further development of a doctrine/image about Jesus. Many of the old and established ideas are repeated here, but one new theory has been put forward: in imitation of the theory of Snouck Hurgronje about a changing perception and role of Ibrahim in the 'earlier' and 'later' texts of the Qur'an, I also suggest here a change in perspective about Jesus.
In surah 19, one of the earlier texts, Jesus is seen only in a positive way, without polemics (if we take the verses 34-40 as a later interpolation). The death of Jesus is mentioned more or less as a refrain, repeating the text on John:

19:15 (on John/Yahya)
may peace be upon him on the day that he was born,
on the day that he dies
and on the day that he will be raised up again to life

19:33 (on Jesus/Isa)
peace is with me on the day that I was born,
on the day that I die
and on the day that I will be raised up again to life.

It is quite interesting that 19:33 is also on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, but then in the third person, exactly in the same wordings as 19:15 on John!

The idea about Jesus who did not die on the cross can be read in 4:157 where the text says about the Jews:
They have not killed him. And they have not crucified him. This can also be read as it was done in surah 8:17 about Muslim killed at Badr. The Qur'an says here to the unbelievers: You have not killed them, I, God, have killed them.
The interpretation of the believer can accept such strong wordings.

I thank Dr. Simon Rae of Dunedin/New Zealand, who made a clear translation and also Dr. Varghese Manimala of the Henry Martin Institute in Hyderabad who organized this English translation, published atMedia House, Delhi. See their website:
www.mediahousedelhi.com.