So I’m auditing this course at NTS under Terrence Fretheim. He’s brilliant, and here’s how I know it. About once an hour Fretheim completely messes with some deeply held belief of mine. Here are a few examples:

• “Let us create humankind in our image.” I’ve always taught this as a Trinitarian reference. God is the “us” and the “our.” He says that you can’t make that assumption from the text. “The Old Testament is not a Trinitarian book.” People look deeply in sort of awkward ways to try and find the Trinity. The understanding of God in Trinitarian terms is a later development, and texts like these can help in that understanding. God has always been Trinity, whether the OT understands that is another question.” He thinks the “us” and the “we” refer to the community of the heavenly hosts – the beings who exist in heaven with God – and that somehow God works through them in the act of creation.

• Suffering was part of creation before sin entered the world. “Suffering is God’s chief way of being powerful in the world,” and “suffering is necessary to life. Life without suffering would be no sort of life at all.” 4 kinds of suffering present before sin came into the picture: limits, temptation, anxiety, loneliness.

• He riffed on the story of Cain & “Am I my brother’s keeper.” I can’t rehearse the textual argument he made in the Hebrew, but he concluded that God is saying, “No, you are not your brother’s keeper.” In part because in the OT, God is the only one who can “keep” humans. Humans are the keepers of the earth and the animals (dominion over animals, till & “keep” the earth is a command). So, we are not our brother’s keeper. God is. We are the keepers of the earth & the animals. But, God’s keeping of human beings does happen through human agency (we’re still on the hook to love our brother, assist, care for, serve, suffer for/with, etc.). But all in all, God is your brother’s keeper. You are your brother’s brother, which implies an obligation to love, suffer with, care for, etc.

As a side note – there is an interesting poll on HuffPo right now which asks, “Poverty: Should The Government be Responsible For Caring For the Poor?” You can participate in the poll here.