I was reading a bit from Collins’ Introduction to the Hebrew Bible today. And, I realized once again how much I prefer to read short books over long ones. Collins is about 700 pages. Don’t get me wrong, I like long books as reference works. And, I’ll read them from time to time. But, I don’t really like to read them straight through from start to finish. I’d rather read three shorter books that equal or even surpass a bit the length of one long book.
So, I got to thinking about how I might work out teaching an introductory class on the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible (if ever asked to do so) without using a long textbook. I’m pretty sure I would use Ska for the Pentateuch (300 pages) and maybe Blenkinsopp for the Prophets (291 pages). But, I don’t what I would use for the Writings. Are there any good introductions to the Writings? I haven’t really found any, but it is also hard to search for “the Writings” because a lot of unrelated stuff pops up.
I realize this way you might have the problem of different methodologies, etc. But then again, you might also get the benefit of having students read more from specialists in particular areas. And, it might help students who are like me and prefer to sense of accomplishment from finishing books. Sounds better to say I read three books as opposed to one!
Being a bit jealous of Scott Bailey’s heavy prophetic mantle I have decided to try on one of my own. So, here goes with my prophecy: If Scott keeps up this Christianity’s March Madness Insanity thing, we will all see a rankings juggernaut this month. You really have to go over check it out if you haven’t already. The posts so far are HERE, HERE, and HERE. He’s got “Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey” slated in at number one, but my money is on “Cancer Pastor” all the way. At any rate, it is the funniest/most disturbing ongoing series within the BiblioBlogosphere (IMHO). JW’s “Total Depravity” posts have nothing on this … Sorry, Jim.
We’ve all heard about Jospeh’s coat of many colors, right? Well, it looks like you may need to throw that fond childhood memory out. Today’s lectionary reading is from Genesis 37. Here are a few translations in comparison with regard to “Joseph’s coat of many colors” (translation comparisons on this site are done in BibleWorks 8 using Parallels):
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. (Gen 37:3 NAB)
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. (Gen 37:3 NASB)
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him. (Gen 37:3 NET)
Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph– a beautiful robe. (Gen 37:3 NLT)
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. (Gen 37:3 NRS)
I don’t know a lot about this particular translation issue, nor do I think it makes enough difference to me in terms of overall understanding to go search out an answer. I just wanted to tear away from you your childhood belief in Joseph’s coat of many colors. At any rate, it seems like translators simply do not know what this word translated “long,” “varicolored,” “special,” or “beautiful” actually means. In fact, the Lexham interlinear (LOGOS – for which my supervising professor is the editor) simply lists the word as “uncertain meaning.” Lexicons seem to lean toward “long.”
So, are you going to still teach children about Joseph’s coat of many colors? Probably. But, just know inwardly that you may be lying to children .
Okay so a friend asked myself and other youth folks in my area to make (semi-funny) videos for an upcoming conference of what we like to do in our spare time (other than blogging I guess). Here’s mine (you have to be watching with annotations on to get the full effect):
Okay maybe that’s not funny to you, but it is to me.
I don’t want to go too commercial, but here’s a product I was thinking about developing for my site. Because everyone needs a reminder from time to time and because the world needs to know …
“Eat or be eaten” that’s what the prophet tells Israel their choice is in today’s lectionary reading from Isaiah 1, though I’m not using this idiom in the same way it is often used in English. It is more of obey or disobey and experience completely opposite results. This message comes in the form of a word play in verses 19-20; however, the translations obscure the word play somewhat. Compare the following translations:
If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; 20 But if you refuse and resist, the sword shall consume you: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken! (Isa 1:19 NAB)
“If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; 20 “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isa 1:19 NAU)
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isa 1:19 NRS)
There is a parallel between “eating good things” and “being consumed/devoured by the sword.” This is where I’m pointing out the contrast “eat or be eaten.” Regardless of the translation, whether “consumed” or “devoured,” the underlying Hebrew word is the same one that is translated “eat” in verse 19.
And here again is one of the trade-offs in deciding how to translate. Do you translate the word in verse 20 as “be eaten,” so that the word play “eat or be eaten” comes across more clearly, even though that phraseology is a bit awkward? Or, do you translate the word differently in verse 20 as “consume” or “devour” in order to avoid the awkwardness?
“Love Your Neighbor” that’s what your supposed to do, right? Well, at least that is what Jesus said in in Matthew 22:38 repeating a line from Leviticus 19:18. But, what about those other voices in scripture? You know the ones that say not so nice things about neighbors or wish not so nice things upon them. We can see a little bit of what happens in the context of liturgy in today’s lectionary reading from Psalm 79.
Click on over and check out the verses that are used … 8, 9, 11 and 13. Okay. So, what are we missing? Verses 10 and 12, right? (This is almost always a fun exercise -for me at least, looking at what’s missing.) Is there any reason why they might be missing? I don’t know let’s read them:
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes. (NRSV)
12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!
I think here we have a less than forgiving attitude toward one’s neighbor for whatever reason. That reason is not important here in the context of talking about lectionary.
What does the lectionary then do when there is something contrary to the idea of “Love Your Neighbor”? Here at least it appears that the reading is sanitized by removing those parts. What can this tell us? I think when we look at what is used and what is missing we see what the modern church values. We value forgiveness and we value love of neighbor. Thus, rather than give worshipers an example of someone who does not feel this way and reflects this in their prayer, we choose from those words of theirs that may be more edifying.
Now, I don’t think that this works out so well as an overall strategy. If we simply ignore difficult passages or passages that don’t agree with those attitudes from scripture that become accepted within the community, this can lead to a great deal of dissonance when people do finally encounter those passages. It can also lead to dishonesty with God (i.e. a person saying in a prayer that they love someone when they really don’t feel that way). But, perhaps this is okay if the matters are dealt with elsewhere … say in the homily.
At any rate, I think that if we read between the lines of the lectionary today, we might come away with the message “love your neighbor” even if it is in contrast to when the Psalmist wrote.
Biblical Studies Carnival that is. Brooke has posted the 51st Biblical Studies Carnival. Here’s a little music to put you in the mood. Great (very thorough) job Brooke!
Further proof that Alexa does absolutely nothing to take content into consideration, right Joel? Just kidding … Congratulations to everyone who made it into the top 50 this month. We’ve got a couple of new blogs this month. Be sure to check them out: Simul Iustus at Peccator, Font Words, Pastoral Musings and Ma Yitron (sorry didn’t want to figure out how to fool with Hebrew this morning).
As per last month, I mentioned that I have an idea for a new site for the rankings. I am going to act on that eventually. But, I’ve been detained by other things this month . Hopefully, you won’t begrudge me that. At any rate, that will probably be a summer project.
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. Hopefully, you won’t begrudge me that. At any rate, that will probably be a summer project.