Blogging The Bible
I've been meaning to mention this for awhile. I've been loving and devouring the Slate featured, Liveblogging The Bible. It's completely fascinating. Weened on Bible commentaries (like all good Reformed/Presbyterian kids) it's a surreal reformulation of a very familiar exercise.
The same thing needs to be done (as a friend suggested) with The Koran (sans comics of course), or now that I think about it, every significant religious document. The rule must be that it can't be done in the typical systematic (in the theologicas sense/traditiona) fashion, not unbaised of course, but neither brutally partison.
Anyways, I'm considering doing the same thing with the Bible. It's a good reason to read it all the way through again, which I haven't done in ten plus years. Again, raised as I was, I realize the entire endeavor will suffer due to a lack of an understanding/grasp of the original languages, but nothings perfect.
There's dozens of gems in the Slate article, and this one is by no means the best (the humor in his reading of the Noah/Flood account is delightful), but I found comment on the account of Joseph in Egypt quite fun:
An incident I had forgotten, which speaks again to Joseph's strength of character: Pharaoh gives Joseph an Egyptian name, "Zaphenath-paneah," and orders him to marry a high-ranking Egyptian girl (she's the Nilotic equivalent of Donald Rumsfeld's daughter, God help her). But when his two sons are born, Joseph gives them Hebrew names, Ephraim and Manasseh. He obviously does not forget God and does not forget who he truly is.
| By Josiah Roe | 01:40 PM
Comments
I've ben intermittently reading the series with some interest. What strikes me in almost every paragraph is the lack of an assumption that 1) the Bible makes coherent sense as a whole and have a single point, and 2) that God's actions are not judgable by man. Gives me hives every time. It's a skeptic's reading of the Bible, and while the blogger does seem to be genuinely interested in his project, he does not seem to be genuinely interested in what the Bible has to say.
Posted by: ryan at July 31, 2006 03:28 PM
Ryan, I think calling him a "skeptic" is uncharitable, though it is true that he does not assume that the Bible makes coherent sense as a whole or that God's actions are not judgeable.
That being said, it does not follow (or at least you don't make the connection) that given the lack of those two assumptions that he's not interested in what the Bible has to say. In fact, your assertion/conclusion seems somewhat absurd (or hasty), given that he is
a. reading the Bible
and
b. reflecting on what is has to say
Now we (of course) have particular exegetical beefs, but that doesn't mean his intentions are anything less than genuine when it comes to an interest in what the Bible has to say. All it means is that we may disagree.
Finally, there's a great argument implicit (and explicit) for justification of his "wrestling" approach to the Word & God. Note how points out that those God most used are those who explicitly (and often incorrectly) fought and argued with God. Heck, how many times did Moses beg and cajole God not to eliminate the Israelites?
Personally, I'm not sure God wants brute & mindless submission. I think He likes folks that judge Him. It certainly makes for a more interesting relationship (even if there's nothing we CAN do to God, but that's not the point).
Posted by: JosiahQ at July 31, 2006 03:55 PM
Josiah,
I really do find myself in total agreement with you here. I actually was inspired by David's blogging to start my own Bible Blogging Project and it's been illuminating so far.
Funny you should focus on the whole judging God thing. The incident with Jacob wrestling with God is an indication that he really does want a people who will "strive" with him. I'm thick in the book of Job at the moment, and I notice how God saves his harshest criticism for those who ardently defend God's justice in the face of injustice.
Posted by: Wonders For Oyarsa at August 14, 2006 11:40 AM
dude get a holdof me... you're invited to my wedding,... SEP 3rd...later
Posted by: Ben Crack Crist at August 19, 2006 04:52 PM
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