Literary Recommendation of the Day
Jan. 7th, 2008 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realexplodingcatThe Old Testament! Long time readers may remember my attempt to write goofy Bible satires. I got as far as Leviticus. Beyond the Book of Numbers (for which I had a good idea, but never the time to write), it was getting harder to find the inspiration. So, that didn't last. However, I did not stop reading. I read it all, including the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books. I took about three years to do it. I couldn't read it straight through, so I took many breaks to read other things. I have not yet read the New Testament, but I will be getting to that in the next year or so.
In honor of a new report by the National Academy of Sciences emphasizing the importance of teaching evolution in public schools (and my listening to an NPR discussion about it), I'm posting my reaction to reading The Old Testament. It's not as deep and eloquent as I'd like, but the baby doesn't give me much time for scholarly writing. I wish I had more time and energy to cite more specific examples for each topic and elaborate more, but I don't have it in me at this time. So...here's my draft that will stay forever rough.
The Old Testament (and the rest of the Bible) is the most widely available text in the world and has been for centuries. Countless people have read its words and the book has been influencing nations and cultures worldwide for a long time. However, in my opinion, the Bible's greatest strength is its greatest weakness. There is a frighteningly large number people lacking the basic skills of critical reading who are allowing the book to influence their lives based on a literal interpretation of its words. I consider this a heresy against one of the greatest, if not The Greatest, published works in the history of western civilization. To only read this work literally is an exercise in laziness and ignorance. It's like interpreting George Orwell's "Animal Farm" as being just about animals and life on the farm, for example, but far more dangerous.
You could spend a lifetime reading and writing about the Old Testament, let alone the entire body of work that makes up Bibical writings (New Testament, Aphocraphal and Deuterconanical text, and other gospels), and never do it justice. However, I'll try to offer some thoughts based on my experience with the text.
While a literal reading is one way to go, the text is far too complex to make that a sufficient reading. Several other ways to read the text are as a history, as myth, as fiction, as record keeping, as poetry, and as a living document. The only way to truly understand the text, is to read it as all these things simultaneously. Needless to say, repeated readings (if you have the stamina or spiritual fortitude) is a necessity. Of course, I must admit I have only read it once, but were I to launch a life long study, I would tackle the text with each of these categories of interpretation in mind.
History: The Old Testament does provide plenty of opportunities for literal interpretation as a historical record of the ups and downs of Jewish civilization in the middle east. Without a doubt, much of the Old Testament is true. There are plenty of names, dates, places, and events for which the truth has been corroborated by other historical and archaeological evidence. Of course, as any historian will tell you, the study of history is rarely a literal interpretation. There are always contradictory facts and holes in the evidence that make finding the truth challenging, especially the longer back in time you go. The Bible is no different. There are a lot of facts we know. There is a lot we absolutely cannot verify.
Myth: Every ancient culture, from the celts to the old norse to the greeks, wrote myths along side their histories, tall tales to explain their origins or attempts to explain why events in recent history may have happened. Why should the ancient Israelites be any different? There is a lot of myth in the Old Testament, side by side with the history, sometimes even in the same chapters. The beginning of the Book of Genesis is a world famous creation myth. Just because it's the most well known of creation myths, doesn't mean it's any more true than any other story.
Record Keeping: Going hand-in-hand with the Historical aspects are the various lists and records in the Old Testament. There are huge lists of names cataloging people in certain places. There are long lists of genealogy records. Census data fills the book of Numbers, where people are being counted, both living and those who die on the way to the promised land. There are detailed descriptions of the Arc and the tent in which it resides, so exact it may have been recorded to act as a blue print.
Fiction: There are stories known to be fiction. Several of these end up in the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books, but there's a good chance other fictions are sprinkled throughout the rest of the text to make a point or to educate where real events were not sufficient.
Poetry: The Old Testament is filled with poetry. All the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, the Proverbs, and many of the stories in the Old Testament are told in verse. The power of poetry is its ability to say much more than it seems. A poem, with all its metaphor, symbolism and other literary tools, is greater than the sum of its words, making literal interpretation incomplete.
Living Document: Throughout history, the Old Testament has been changing. It did not fall from the sky written in English, or in any of the languages into which it was translated. So, people--real live people--have been making translations for a long time. Translators must make choices about their words and how they translate passages. Consequently, we have many differing translations of a text that some readers still feel is to be taken literally. Which translation is correct? There is no answer to that because it's always a moving target.
The Old Testament is all this and more. Expository writing, persuasive writing, fiction, poetry, metaphor, allegory, symbolism, etc... the list of literary devices goes on and on. If mere humans employ these tools to express themselves, why should we expect an all powerful God to use anything less? A literal reading is the simplest expectation. I, for one, would not want to insult the good Lord with such low expectations.
In honor of a new report by the National Academy of Sciences emphasizing the importance of teaching evolution in public schools (and my listening to an NPR discussion about it), I'm posting my reaction to reading The Old Testament. It's not as deep and eloquent as I'd like, but the baby doesn't give me much time for scholarly writing. I wish I had more time and energy to cite more specific examples for each topic and elaborate more, but I don't have it in me at this time. So...here's my draft that will stay forever rough.
The Old Testament (and the rest of the Bible) is the most widely available text in the world and has been for centuries. Countless people have read its words and the book has been influencing nations and cultures worldwide for a long time. However, in my opinion, the Bible's greatest strength is its greatest weakness. There is a frighteningly large number people lacking the basic skills of critical reading who are allowing the book to influence their lives based on a literal interpretation of its words. I consider this a heresy against one of the greatest, if not The Greatest, published works in the history of western civilization. To only read this work literally is an exercise in laziness and ignorance. It's like interpreting George Orwell's "Animal Farm" as being just about animals and life on the farm, for example, but far more dangerous.
You could spend a lifetime reading and writing about the Old Testament, let alone the entire body of work that makes up Bibical writings (New Testament, Aphocraphal and Deuterconanical text, and other gospels), and never do it justice. However, I'll try to offer some thoughts based on my experience with the text.
While a literal reading is one way to go, the text is far too complex to make that a sufficient reading. Several other ways to read the text are as a history, as myth, as fiction, as record keeping, as poetry, and as a living document. The only way to truly understand the text, is to read it as all these things simultaneously. Needless to say, repeated readings (if you have the stamina or spiritual fortitude) is a necessity. Of course, I must admit I have only read it once, but were I to launch a life long study, I would tackle the text with each of these categories of interpretation in mind.
History: The Old Testament does provide plenty of opportunities for literal interpretation as a historical record of the ups and downs of Jewish civilization in the middle east. Without a doubt, much of the Old Testament is true. There are plenty of names, dates, places, and events for which the truth has been corroborated by other historical and archaeological evidence. Of course, as any historian will tell you, the study of history is rarely a literal interpretation. There are always contradictory facts and holes in the evidence that make finding the truth challenging, especially the longer back in time you go. The Bible is no different. There are a lot of facts we know. There is a lot we absolutely cannot verify.
Myth: Every ancient culture, from the celts to the old norse to the greeks, wrote myths along side their histories, tall tales to explain their origins or attempts to explain why events in recent history may have happened. Why should the ancient Israelites be any different? There is a lot of myth in the Old Testament, side by side with the history, sometimes even in the same chapters. The beginning of the Book of Genesis is a world famous creation myth. Just because it's the most well known of creation myths, doesn't mean it's any more true than any other story.
Record Keeping: Going hand-in-hand with the Historical aspects are the various lists and records in the Old Testament. There are huge lists of names cataloging people in certain places. There are long lists of genealogy records. Census data fills the book of Numbers, where people are being counted, both living and those who die on the way to the promised land. There are detailed descriptions of the Arc and the tent in which it resides, so exact it may have been recorded to act as a blue print.
Fiction: There are stories known to be fiction. Several of these end up in the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books, but there's a good chance other fictions are sprinkled throughout the rest of the text to make a point or to educate where real events were not sufficient.
Poetry: The Old Testament is filled with poetry. All the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, the Proverbs, and many of the stories in the Old Testament are told in verse. The power of poetry is its ability to say much more than it seems. A poem, with all its metaphor, symbolism and other literary tools, is greater than the sum of its words, making literal interpretation incomplete.
Living Document: Throughout history, the Old Testament has been changing. It did not fall from the sky written in English, or in any of the languages into which it was translated. So, people--real live people--have been making translations for a long time. Translators must make choices about their words and how they translate passages. Consequently, we have many differing translations of a text that some readers still feel is to be taken literally. Which translation is correct? There is no answer to that because it's always a moving target.
The Old Testament is all this and more. Expository writing, persuasive writing, fiction, poetry, metaphor, allegory, symbolism, etc... the list of literary devices goes on and on. If mere humans employ these tools to express themselves, why should we expect an all powerful God to use anything less? A literal reading is the simplest expectation. I, for one, would not want to insult the good Lord with such low expectations.
