Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CONVERSION

The notion of conversion as Israel’s “repentance” from a failure to obey divine commands arose in the preaching of the 8th-century prophets. In Amos, who spoke against specific sins, and Hosea, who spoke of Israel’s stubbornness and “harlotry,” Heb. šûḇ was used with the sense of “returning” (to God). The term conveys motion and encompasses a range of meanings (“return, go back, turn back, come back”). Accordingly, Jeremiah played on its usage in covenantal contexts to allow šûḇ to bear the twofold meaning of a change of loyalty on the part of either Israel or God for the other. For Jeremiah the term could refer to both apostasy and repentance, and a people that once had departed from God could also have a change of heart and manifest the new inner reality by “repenting.” Ezekiel and the Deuteronomist generally phrased the prophetic invitation negatively (“turn back from evil”), but in Jeremiah it nearly always has a positive orientation (“turn back to God”). For Jeremiah the essential ground of repentance lay not in humanity, but in the very nature of God as merciful. It is this rich view of repentance, inviting Israel to change its mind about God, that came to characterize the NT conceptions of conversion.

The Gospels open their accounts of Jesus’ ministry with John the Baptist preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). Matthew parallels the message of John and Jesus as one of repentance (Matt. 3:2; 4:17), and the Fourth Gospel depicts the Baptist and Jesus simultaneously conducting a baptismal ministry (John 3:22-23; but cf. 4:2). In graphic terms John the Baptist urged conversion because of a coming apocalyptic judgment (cf. Matt. 3:10-12 = Luke 3:9, 17). Jesus, by contrast, seems to have taken a more compassionate tack, downplaying the theme of judgment and highlighting God’s love of those — especially of the house of Israel — who had become lost or (figuratively) perished (Luke 15:1-32).

Scholars ask whether Jesus himself underwent a “conversion” or suggest that the scandalous aspect of Jesus’ behavior lay in his table fellowship with sinners without calling them to repent their way of life. The theme of “conversion,” in this latter view, would be a retrojection into his ministry by the early Church (compare “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance” in Luke 5:32 with the shorter formulation in Mark 2:17; Matt. 9:13b). However, the preponderance of testimony from all levels (period of Jesus, the Church, the Evangelists) and forms of the Jesus tradition (beatitudes, parables, gestures of healing, prophetic actions) shows Jesus calling for a changed perspective about what God was doing through his ministry. Jesus stresses the need to heed his teaching by a change of life. Manifestations of conversion are depicted under a variety of images such as “becoming like children” (Matt. 18:3), being “born from above/again” (John 3:3), and “rebirth” (1 Pet. 1:3).

Since Paul characterized gentile conversion as a “turning to God from idols, to serve a living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9), some prefer to describe his own reorientation on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-22; cf. Gal. 1:15-22) as a “call.” In Pauline parenesis, great stress is laid on the radical change that has come about in believers by their association with the death and resurrection of Jesus in baptism after conversion (Rom. 6:1-11).

In the NT the once-and-for-all nature of conversion is accompanied by exhortations to allow the “fruit of the Spirit,” who indwells disciples, to become manifest in their lives (Gal. 5:22-26). The salvation given by God must be “worked out with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). Christian expression of the changed life includes humility, communal sharing of goods (Luke 19:8; Acts 2:42-47), and impartiality to human distinctions such as those between rich and poor (Jas. 2:1-7).

The Christian Scriptures contain a variety of views regarding the ongoing nature of conversion. Believers are urged to hold steadfast, “for it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened . . . and then have fallen away” (Heb. 6:4-6). The glorified Lord Jesus addresses to the seven churches one and the same call to “repent” (Rev. 2:1–3:22).

Bibliography. R. E. Clements, Jeremiah. Interpretation (Atlanta, 1988); W. L. Holladay, The Root šûbh in the Old Testament (Leiden, 1958); P. W. Hollenbach, “The Conversion of Jesus: From Jesus the Baptizer to Jesus the Healer,” ANRW II.25.1, 196-219; A. D. Nock, Conversion: The Old and New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (1933, repr. Baltimore, 1998); K. Stendahl, “Call Rather than Conversion,” in Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia, 1976), 7-23.

Terrence Prendergast, S.J.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CONVERSION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)