This is stunning work—deep, thoughtful, and courageous. I’m struck by how you recover the meaning of “perfection” not as sinless rule-following, but as wholehearted covenantal devotion. The contrast between treaty and grant covenants opens up so much clarity, and your grounding in ancient context makes the whole thing sing.
Your reading of Jesus’s call to be “perfect” as political, relational, and rooted in love rather than legalism is liberating—and timely. It’s theology with teeth and tenderness. Thanks for giving so much rigor, but also heart, to this conversation.
William, thank you so much. Such a gratifying response particularly since I worried about this "leap" more than I have about most of my posts. The post is certainly not perfect (in any sense), but I hope it can serve as a corrective of sorts. I very much appreciate your close reading, too, of such a long read!
I've been thinking about this a lot since I first read it some days ago. It seems to me that the English word "perfect" is part of the problem, as you've suggested. I went back to my Liddell&Scott and looked up teleios. While "perfect" is indeed one of the translations given, the Greek word also means "completeness", "fulfillment," "brought to accomplishment." These additional words feel a lot better to me in the context of the Gospels. The Greeks described an ideal sacrificial animal as "perfect" - meaning 'without blemish, whole, entire." They didn't mean "without sin," or "incapable of making mistakes." When Jesus spoke to the rich young man, doesn't it make more sense that he was saying, "follow me and move toward completion, toward fulfillment of all that you are truly meant to be" rather than "come back when you're perfect, because now you clearly aren't"? Translation can really trip us up, for centuries, and this has been true of the Bible for far too long. I was reminded of the passage where Jesus says, "I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly." The promise implied is for everyone, not just a chosen few who are "more perfect than others."
Thank you for this entire post and for the ways in which it has made me think deeply. Commitment, devotion, and a continual "turning toward" seem to me to be the operative calls to us, not an ideal of unattainable perfection that Jesus alone possesses. If that were true, then why come in a human body?
Beth, thank you for working through this long (even for me!) post. I love how you put this: "When Jesus spoke to the rich young man, doesn't it make more sense that he was saying, 'follow me and move toward completion, toward fulfillment of all that you are truly meant to be' rather than 'come back when you're perfect, because now you clearly aren't'?" That's got be right.
This draft didn't get around to talking much about David, a man with a "perfect" heart in the Bible's covenantal sense who also was a murderer, a manipulator, a hypocrite, an adulterer, and given the power disparity, a rapist. If David doesn't move the needle on how we understand at least the Hebrew word often translated as "perfect," I'm not sure what would . . . I confess that David still boggles my mind . . .
This is stunning work—deep, thoughtful, and courageous. I’m struck by how you recover the meaning of “perfection” not as sinless rule-following, but as wholehearted covenantal devotion. The contrast between treaty and grant covenants opens up so much clarity, and your grounding in ancient context makes the whole thing sing.
Your reading of Jesus’s call to be “perfect” as political, relational, and rooted in love rather than legalism is liberating—and timely. It’s theology with teeth and tenderness. Thanks for giving so much rigor, but also heart, to this conversation.
William, thank you so much. Such a gratifying response particularly since I worried about this "leap" more than I have about most of my posts. The post is certainly not perfect (in any sense), but I hope it can serve as a corrective of sorts. I very much appreciate your close reading, too, of such a long read!
You just turned "leap" into more than a tired trope!
I've been thinking about this a lot since I first read it some days ago. It seems to me that the English word "perfect" is part of the problem, as you've suggested. I went back to my Liddell&Scott and looked up teleios. While "perfect" is indeed one of the translations given, the Greek word also means "completeness", "fulfillment," "brought to accomplishment." These additional words feel a lot better to me in the context of the Gospels. The Greeks described an ideal sacrificial animal as "perfect" - meaning 'without blemish, whole, entire." They didn't mean "without sin," or "incapable of making mistakes." When Jesus spoke to the rich young man, doesn't it make more sense that he was saying, "follow me and move toward completion, toward fulfillment of all that you are truly meant to be" rather than "come back when you're perfect, because now you clearly aren't"? Translation can really trip us up, for centuries, and this has been true of the Bible for far too long. I was reminded of the passage where Jesus says, "I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly." The promise implied is for everyone, not just a chosen few who are "more perfect than others."
Thank you for this entire post and for the ways in which it has made me think deeply. Commitment, devotion, and a continual "turning toward" seem to me to be the operative calls to us, not an ideal of unattainable perfection that Jesus alone possesses. If that were true, then why come in a human body?
Beth, thank you for working through this long (even for me!) post. I love how you put this: "When Jesus spoke to the rich young man, doesn't it make more sense that he was saying, 'follow me and move toward completion, toward fulfillment of all that you are truly meant to be' rather than 'come back when you're perfect, because now you clearly aren't'?" That's got be right.
This draft didn't get around to talking much about David, a man with a "perfect" heart in the Bible's covenantal sense who also was a murderer, a manipulator, a hypocrite, an adulterer, and given the power disparity, a rapist. If David doesn't move the needle on how we understand at least the Hebrew word often translated as "perfect," I'm not sure what would . . . I confess that David still boggles my mind . . .