The Cave

So in class we talked about assent and descent. Assent being the garden and the mountain, or things pertaining to the heavens and going up. Descent dealing with the depths of Hell, or the cave and furnace. I am in the cave group and quite frankly very excited. The Bible has been translated so many different ways, which is why it affects literature and media in various ways. Shows like supernatural dealing with the bible, apocalypse, lucifer, the horseman, demons, angels, and anything else one can think of that has to do with the bible, its there. Even Literature such as the Twilight series, or any monster or demonology states of the realms of Heaven and Hell, and how all of the living dead soul's are going to hell. these ideals of heaven and hell are so ambiguous, and in our time of vast theories and multiples literatures and media that give us all different ideas to go by...how are we supposed to form opinions on our own? think of the movie Da vinci code both in literature and in media and how much speculation and hype that created? peoples worlds were turned upside down by this new "faith language" that jesus was a man who could fall in love just like the rest of us, and even have a family.

The Real Good Book

So... was reading in Gomes' The Good Book, which was not the right book. It still gave me some great insight, but everyone kept talking about how funny the book was and the humor of the author, needless to say I didn't see it, because I was reading the wrong author...oh dear. But! Now I am making progress in the correct book by Plotz, and I see the light, literally and figuratively speaking. A brilliant writer that makes reading the bible a ton of fun. His humor is captivating and he opens my eyes to stories I thought I knew so well. For instance, the story of Moses and how God seems to be a big time bully. He is pushy and overbearing. He keeps telling Moses I am that I am, and I am almighty and you should help let me people go, and of course Moses is skeptical. I would be too if some plant was talking to me. the part that just cracked me up was on page 42 and it reads like this, "...God gives Moses a piece of wood that cleans up the water- the world's first Brita filter." (Plotz). That statement says everything, and speaks wonders about our history and stories.

Letters

 On Thursday we talked about letters or Epistles, and how they are found in the New Testament. we talked about how more or less, they are textual documents with no literary value, but depending on who is reading them or how they are being observed, they have sacred value, and literary value. Then we got into some deeper meanings for the written word. we discussed how the written word is a record of a moment that happened in history. they become reminders of our history, and history in general. they show of human development and of human struggles over thousands of years. letters, or the written word are products of endless development and innovation, and in that sense they are to be looked at as textual artifacts. then something was said that caught me attention, Jesus himself did not even lift a finger to write, there is not history of him writing anything (except in the sand as seen by witnesses).   Jesus didn’t publish a thing, people wrote of his teachings. We must have respect for the written word and all that is possesses, and that is what the Bible stands for, respect. Jesus's teachings were written down, thus saving them from extinction and preserving them in history. This resonated with me in an unsettling way. we are taught we need to respect the written word, not just of God but in general. Yet, the written word is dying out. We no longer write love letters to our truly beloveds, no we simply call them or email them, which yes is written, but not in the same sense I am ranting about. the idea of simplicity. writing someone a letter and receiving one in return. I mean lets face it, whenever we get a card in the mail or something written by a friend or lover, our hearts skip a beat, and a huge smile crosses our faces. this form of the written word is much more intimate than a computerized email, someone took the time to "scribe" out a message to us, which means so much more. we no longer write to people to tell them of our affections and or intentions, no. We simply text it, or facebook it. So my question is, how are we supposed to respect something that is dying out, something that will soon be extinct and that days of the written word (by hand) will be beyond the boundaries of our imaginations? 

  Respect for the written word, that is what the bible is, respect. Written it down means you are saving it from extinction. 

Interpretation

Continuing on in the Good Book, and I came to the chapter about interpretation. It is such a tricky idea of people everywhere, with different view points, beliefs, lives, ideals etc interpreting the bible. to me, the bible should be a piece of information/history that should (key word should) unite people and bring them together. but more often than not, the bible creates more trouble than needed. as individuals we do interpret everything in life differently, and the bible is no exception to that.  Gomes states, "interpretation is the fuel that drives understanding." (33). I think this a great statement. we desire to understand the unknown and the unfamiliar. we long to comprehend what we often times cannot fathom, and for me this is the interpretation of the bible/religion itself. just some random thoughts i had...

Genesis 1&2

On Thursday we talked about a lot! Sometimes when sitting in class I feel daft because everything is so overwhelming. I hear my classmates talking about the bible or religion and it makes me feel like I need to get my butt in gear to understand their "french" (Gomes) conversation I am not apart of. We talked about the word Lacuna or 'gap in a story' and its interesting to think there are gaps in the bible, stories that will never be finished, and stories that we can not even fathom to understand. In the readings of Gensis 1&2 I noticed some differences. In Genesis 1 God first creates heaven and earth. He creates everything from night and day to creatures, land, eden and saves adam and eve until day 6. then God takes a mini breather and declares the seventh day to be a kick back sunday night football 'day'. God creates man in his image and in that created both adam and eve at the same time! In Gensis 2 the Lord God appears to make man in the same day he creates the Heavens and earth. He creates man (and man alone) from the dust of the earth and breathes into his nostrils to give him life and a soul. This story also touches upon the four rivers that lead out of Eden, and talks in detail of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and how man shalt not eat from this tree or thou shalt surely die. then the Lord God creates the creatures for Adam to care for and he gets to name them all. Adam falls asleep and the Lord God takes one of his ribs and with this rib creates Eve. so woman was created from man, or so the story goes. I personally like the second Genesis more. It gives more detail and proved to be an interesting read. The part where Adam blames Eve for their fall even though he eats the fruit just as she does seems vaguely familiar to men today... Im just saying..

So I am diving into The Good Book and enjoying it! Gomes is a brilliant writer and add a great sense of humor to his writings. On page 6 he mentions talking to a churchgoer and how she describes hearing the Old/New Testaments in church on sundays is like hearing people have a conversation in french and trying to decode that conversation with your french knowledge that you have, which is little to none. ultimately the effort is way greater than the reward, for you understand hardly anything, and you acquire a headache. I also like the bit that said that the bible is a consequence of both human and the divine. Also, I never understood that the scripture set out to help answer questions of human existence such as who am I? What is the purpose of life... what is good and what is evil? Now I think of these questions all the time, and never knew the Scriptures set out to help people answer this. I found the idea that the bible is supposed to play a public role in society, as are Christians interesting. and i think, because of this public role, thats why people start to demise religion. people not following the bible or christianity don't want anything imposed upon them, they merely want to be left alone, but because the influence of Christ is surrounding them, it creates conflict. I'll have more on Genesis later