"The Bible" on the History Channel

I was a little skeptical when I first sat down to watch "The Bible" series. We have talked about this series before in class, so I sort of knew what to expect, and frankly I went into watching it with a bad attitude. I often find that portrayals of biblical stories are not very good... the only exception (in my opinion) being the Passion of the Christ.

BUT, I really enjoyed watching this show and thought they did a fantastic job with it! Yes, things were left out (especially with their portrayal of the Kings), but overall I really enjoyed being able to watch the stories unfold rather than reading them. I think that the series is a testimony to how successful "storytelling" can add a lot to the stories that already exist. Also, when watching the biblical text being acted out, I was able to examine the stories more as a literature than an "artifact" - maybe it will help me in class to watch the show after we've read certain chapters?

The Bible Miniseries

Since I am back home for spring break, I have an available television with cable to watch.  So I took some time yesterday to watch The Bible miniseries on the History channel to see if it was any good and what it was like.  The series is very well made on a technical level, with big props and a big budget and good actors.  The content is a bit questionable though.  It seems that Mark Burnett and the other producers of this series fell into the same rut as the majority of other people who try to make a film or series out a Bible series.  They took it and made it into a blockbuster type of series rather than sticking to the Biblical basis.  In one scene, the angels visited Lot to see if there was anyone in Sodom or Gomorrah to save, and when they left, they had to fight their way out with swords.  The angels did.  The producers probably just wanted a cool sword fighting scene to put in, which is what they got, but in doing that they degraded angels to the same level as man who have to kill to accomplish something.  The series is well made, but now totally accurate, much like many other series and films based on the Bible.

-Jacob Millay

Childrens Bible stories- Nebuchadnezzar

My favorite Veggie Tales as a kid was the story of Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego and the furnace. Now as a a backdrop the evil king Nebudchadnezzar threw the three of them in a furnace 7 times hotter than the usual temperature. Now Veggie Tales does a good job of desensitizing this by having them worship a giant chocolate bunny and are thrown into a hot fire that looks like something from Dr. Seuss. In reality the furnace they went into was similar to what would have been used in a concentration camp. The fact that Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego were able to survive this furnace is nothing short of the grace of God. I think this story is alot like Noah and the Ark. We like to desensitize the horrific fact of this story and many others in the bible to tone it down so that our children will learn the stories of the bible.

Apocrypha

Having only read Bibles without the Apocrypha in them, the initial concept threw me for a spin. Who knew we as Christians had secret books? It is kind of an odd idea. But after having read them, such as Baruch, it is obvious that they aren't wildly off of what I've been raised to believe. If I'm gonna be honest, hearing books of the Bible like Belle and the Dragon, make me seriously question what is it that I am doing as a Christian and if I'm actually a part of a cult. But After getting the Jerusalem Bible and reading all of the Apocryphal books in my spare time, (starting with Belle and the Dragon of course) I am releaved to know that these hidden holy books are really not all that crazy or outlandish. I have no idea if any of you in this class were in my place ever but I can't help but laugh at the crazy theories my brain started spitting out the minute I learned about the Apocrypha, especially knowing that in reality its just extra books of the Bible.

Violence in Ezekiel

The first 7 or so chapters of Ezekiel are shockingly violent. Some of the descirptions are jsut bizzarely graphic. Like chapter 6:13 talks about corpses being chopped into tiny pieces and scattered around their false idols. I've always heard about this ridiculously violent Old Testament God that was so horrible it led people to declare two Gods in the bible, one for the new testament and the other for the old. I hadn't ever takn much notice of this just becasue I honeslty hadn't really read much of the old testamet before this class. But after reading chapter after chapter about this God who commands violent deaths upon people, I can understand why it is that people struggle with the faith. I also have a much clearer understanding of what it means to fear God. Love him yes, but also fear him.

Everything is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes is a very straightforward book that provides a harsh reality. As depressing as it's overall message "Everything is Meaningless" can be, this is one of my favorite book in the Old Testament. I believe it speaks the most truth and is easily translated and related to modern American society. We have been focused on this book at my church for the past few weeks and this is the summary I have drawn from the sermons: 

We often live rowing toward the island of happiness. Where the things like the perfect education, job, and spouse exist. And we row thinking that God’s current is constantly floating us toward the island of sadness. Where the things like sickness, broken hearts, and financial distress exist. 

But that’s not true. Because neither of those islands are real. We’ve made them up. We don’t float around in a boat, fighting the current and the wind to get to ultimate happiness. No, instead we are on an island called life. Where sadness and happiness have to coexist in order to work. Without sadness and tragedy, we wouldn’t know happiness and gratitude. 

Ultimate happiness doesn’t exist. Not on Earth at least. Not in real life. In Heaven maybe, but we aren’t there yet. We are made to live now. In the moment. To be happy with what we have, and realize that what we don’t and what is breaking us down is really just a way of building us up. 

It is harsh and blunt, yes, but it is true. All of the things we think we absolutely cannot live without are nothing but vapors, according to Ecclesiastes. The only true happiness we can find is in God and we must live in fear of Him and we are forever indebted to Him. 

A very interesting and very powerful idea to digest. 

Morgan Freeman portraying God

Morgan Freeman has more than once been used to play the character of God in modern day Bible-based movies. I have alway thought this was interesting because of his race. Stereotypically, I believe when we try and picture God we see the built up image of Jesus; a white man with brown hair and brown beard, usually dressed in a robe and sandals. However, I've come to realize there is no way to know or paint an image of God because he has never been seen. His son lived on earth and was seen in the flesh, but we all know that Jesus is not based off of genetics as he was born from the Virgin Mary. So, this begs the question in my mind; could God have been of a different race? Many people have a problem with Freeman portraying the image of God, but I think it is a fantastic interpretation for today's society.

Noah's Ark and the rainbow

A few weeks ago we looked at the story of Noah's Ark in depth with the guest speaker. Personally, I've never thought of the story as the nightmare we discussed it to be. Growing up we've learned about the good things in Genesis 6; that Noah followed God's orders and saved the animals. The horror and destruction that must have ensued worldwide, however, is eery to think about and is often omitted when we discuss the flood.

In addition, I think the rainbow as a symbol of God's promise to never flood the Earth again is a fascinating and intriguing concept. Because of this promise, rainbows, to me, are such a peaceful and comforting site. Upon seeing them I not only think of His promise but also realize how amazing those 6 arched colors are and what they mean. And I truly believe that in order to see and appreciate beauty we must first know destruction and terror - a cycle that will forever stay true and has it's greatest evidence in the story of the flood.

Encouragement in Isaiah

The next week is probably very stressful with all of the tests that teachers try to cram in on the last days of the week. Considering this, I just found something encouraging that I wanted to share.
My daily devotional takes Bible verses and expresses them in a way that can apply to our daily lives. A recent one bases the topic off of Isaiah 64:8, which is about the potter and the clay. My book used this verse to explain that the events of each day are placed there for a reason and we cannot control everything that happens to us.
I looked up some other commentaries of this verse and what it might have meant to those who lived during this time period. Some believe that the potter restores the clay and the clay cannot do it alone. Others believe that this relates directly to creation; God made us who we are and we are a piece of art. We can be made into anything that He wants us to be.
Looking through my devotional book, I found that verses in Isaiah were used a lot as the foundation for some of the writings. This just made me wonder if Isaiah could be a book of encouragement and hope.
Commentary
I find this site very helpful in the interpretation of confusing verses.

Foreshadowing within Isaiah Chapter 1?

I have just begun my reading of the book of Isaiah. It is a book that I am not familiar with - I don't have any idea of what goes on in this book, which will be a refreshing way to read the Bible! But, the first chapter seemed to be way too profound to not be some type of foreshadowing for the rest of the book.

The first chapter of Isaiah tells of a vision that the prophet Isaiah receives from God where God informs Isaiah about how His people have turned away from him. The vision is written not in an instructive, prose format but through poetry. Perhaps using poetry to describe the vision provokes more empathy than the reader would receive in an informative prose passage. Nonetheless, after reading the poem, it seems to me that the rest of the book will be about how Isaiah is going to "fix" this problem that God has so passionately explained. Because the poem is so passionate and it opens the book, I believe that there is a legitimate reason to believe that the rest of the book will respond back to this passage!

I will probably post again with my response after reading the book of Isaiah in its entirety. Hopefully I'm not too far off in my beliefs about foreshadowing!

Hearers and Seers

Coogan talks about the two primary ways that prophets receive the 411 from God on page 81-82. He talks about both those who have visions (seers) and those who hear the divine voice of God (hearers). I would make the arguement that there is one more that I have often seen in my own life, kind of a kinestetic sort. I once was at a retreat for my church in Tennessee and there was an artist who went up on stage. Without any kind of preparation of any sort, he began to paint a scene of Mary and Joseph in the manger with baby Jesus. Soon, as he continued to paint, the scene became the faceof Jesus with a crown of thorns on the cross. To see this image transformation may not have been the common definition of prophetic vision but it definitly was a divine connection to us from God. I think that often times our actions can be the most prophetic part about our lives.

Isaiah and St. Patrick

Upon reading about Isaiah I couldn't help but draw parallels to St. Patrick. This could be because I'm sitting here listening to Celtic step music in an Irish flag shirt, or it could just genuinely be because of the similaritites. Both of these men left everything to follow the call God placed on their life. They also both gained faith strength in the demise of their beloved countries. Like I said in one of my previous posts, St. Patrick fully relied on God for everything. You can see this same kind of dedication in the life of Isaiah. They both hit rough patches but did not complain or become bitter with God. Instead they held fast to the hope they profess and believed in nothing else but the ever lasting God.

Thoughts on Prophets

I find it interesting how the definition of a prophet has changed over time. Now a days we see a prophet as someone who determines or can see the future. In biblical times this was viewed as more of a person who was a mediator between people and God, as stated in Coogan page 74. It's easy to hear prophetic speech and believe it to be a mandation on what is to come in the future. However, having been to my fair share of charasmatic churches, often times this is not the case at all. Sometimes people in the congregation give a vision about how the future will be and it never comes. This is not to say that theywere wrong but rather that we as a society view prophetic speech as the news and not as an idea for life later on. Coogan discusses this in the reading we are supposed to do and brings it up in such a way that it really helps the morph the modern definition of what it is to be a prophet like Isaiah.

St. Patrick

I know we haven't covered any of the saints in this class but seeing as how it's Saint Patrick's Day I cound't help but bring up a blog abot my favorite holiday. When you look a the life of St. Patrick, we as Christians, can be significanly impacted by the life he chose to live. The kind of utter abandonment and fixation on Christ is not often seen in our world today. Imagine if we all listened to the word of God and obeyed it just as muchas we listened to music, or watched tv. I think we can all benefit from what God has to say in our lives and I do truly believe that the intent and purpose God has on our lives is each so unique that to not listen would be nothing but counter productive. So on this day known in America by green beer and short red head men, I encourage you all to reflect on how you can live a life similar to St. Patick and follow Gods call on your life.

Psalm Based Worship

I recently heard a song on the radio that is based off of Psalms 84:10, which says " Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked".
Better is One Day
This verse is pretty easy to interpret, but it really stood out to me compared to all of the others. I have heard this song many times growing up, but I never seriously thought about what it actually meant.
To me, this is saying that life can be hard and amazing, but nothing will go wrong in His presence. We will not even think of looking back and might even forget what life was even like here on Earth. The writer was saying that they would give up their life ten times just to experience His presence for a day. Sometimes I just wish a day, week, or month to go by quickly and not to enjoy them like I should. Other times it doesn't seem like life could be any better or I look forward to something so bad. For something that important that we would want it more than anything else, shouldn't we at least give up a small portion of this time on Earth to work towards that goal? This just made me really question what I do with my time.
This also reminded me of the Psalm that we sang to the poetry class.

Song of Solomon Reading and Thoughts

This book is very strange to me.  Many Christians avoid the Song of Solomon because of the imagery that is uses.  Within the first couple of chapters, many of the modern Christians would be turned away from the book.  But why is that?  The imagery is graphic, but it describes two things.  It describes two people who are married and are in love.  We should not be afraid of the closeness of the two people in this book.  Even though sex is often demonized in modern religion this book CLEARLY points out that sex is normal and should be viewed the way we view it.  The book also paints a different picture of God.  We are His bride and he is our bridegroom.  This shows the love of God for mankind in a way that few other books show.  David and Solomon were the first ones to really dive into the love that Love has, as well as the other authors of the Psalms.  Earlier in the Old Testament, it is easier to see God as a God of judgment and of fairness rather than one of love, but these books clearly frame that aspect of his nature.  That is why even though Song Of Solomon is kind of awkward to read, it is a very important book to read and understand.

-Jacob Millay

Aristotle, Plato, and Ecclesiastes

I found Ecclesiastes 1:13 very intriguing because of the information about classical scholars - namely Plato and Aristotle - I learned about in other classes. Qoheleth discusses his experience with reason, "With the help of wisdom I have been at pains to study all that is done under heaven; oh, what a weary task God has given mankind to labour at!" (Ecc 1:13) In more simple terms, the verse is stating that it has been Qoheleth's duty to study everything because God has commanded humans to do so.

This verse, and the passage surrounding it, reminded me very much of Aristotelian thought. Aristotle claims that the purpose of mankind is to discover the entelechy of things in the world based on empirical study and reason. Although not a religious man, Aristotle would agree with Qoheleth's work.

However, Qoheleth goes on to state that, "I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and what vanity it all is, what chasing of the wind!" (Ecc 1:14) Here, Qoheleth is saying that his research is done in vain because the things of this world are meaningless without God's wisdom and truth. Like Aristotle, Plato believes that humans are made to reason. But, Plato would agree with Qoheleth more than Aristotle because of their mutual belief that the physical world should not matter. Plato believes that the world of Forms matters more than the physical world and Qoheleth believes that God matters more than the physical world.

Biblical Reading As A Whole

  Since we started this class, it had been interesting to read the Bible in other settings.  For instance, I meet in a Bible study every Monday with some guys who live in Warren with me.  It is pretty informal and relaxed, but we often read some passage and then discuss it.  Since we have started reading the Bible through a literary perspective, it has affected how I read the Bible in my off time.  I find myself dissecting passages and looking for patterns or reasoning behind certain sayings that I simply didn't do before.
  I am not exactly sure if this is a good thing overall though.  As a Christian, the Bible is sacred and God ordained.  To point all flaws in it seems to go against my worldview in a way.  Reading the Bible and really diving into it is good and helpful and can help you grow as a Christian, but to dissect it to the point of somehow finding fault in the Word seems wrong to me.  And maybe I shouldn't put the Bible on such a pedestal and I should be looking for faults in it.  I am not really sure.

-Jacob Millay

Poetic Interpretation of the Psalms: A Daunting Task

I just finished reading through the Psalms (finally) and am extremely intimidated for both the quiz and discussion in class tomorrow! While reading, I found a wealth of poetic devices and different techniques of the author - and I was just skimming through each Psalm because the book is so long! We have an extremely daunting task ahead of us in interpreting meaning from the Psalms because there is SO much meaning within each line!

Think of poems that we have read in the past - in high school, in other classes, etc. A poem that contains, perhaps, one or two stanzas could be filled with meaning and poetic devices that help create that meaning. For a poem with a single stanza, it is possible to write a five page analysis! We have about two hundred pages of complex biblical poetry, each with religious and cultural importance and masses of poetic devices to look upon.

I am torn in how I want to go about looking at the Psalms. As an English nerd, I love to analyze the author's decisions in each poetic devise he or she uses. After all, the poetic devise would not exist without the author's decision! But, as Doug mentioned before, we need to look at Biblical Poetry in a wider scale - what are sections or stanzas saying as a whole rather than words or single lines? I think that a healthy compromise between the two ways to interpret the Psalms must be drawn. Without looking at a bigger picture, details are unimportant. But without looking closely at details, the importance wouldn't have been built in the first place.

Job as a Parable

Doug had mentioned that the book of Job could perhaps be a made up story due to its opening statement, "There once was..." (Job 1:1). I was intrigued to look further into this idea, specifically the book of Job as a parable.
I looked up a more formal definition for a parable than the one given to us in class. It is defined as, "a short, simple story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth by comparison with actual events." This would apply to the book of Job as his suffering draws comparisons to how followers of God should behave in light of difficult circumstances. The book of Job definitely conveys a principal.

But, what I found most interesting in my research of parables was this definition: "A parable is often an allegory in which each character represents an abstract concept—such as obedience or honesty—and is illustrated through real-life events". The characters that question Job and offer him advice each represent an "abstract concept" the definition talks about, as discussed in class. The fact that the characters are representative of different concepts could contribute to the idea of Job being a parable.

Job and us today

After reading Job I couldn't help draw parallels to Jobs attitude and often times our own attitude. When things go wrong for Job he becomes upset with God and questions what he is doing in his life. We also often do the same thing, when things go wrong we question God and why these things are happening. But the primary difference between 'us' and Job is stickig with God. I think in our society we too often are quick to throw things out if it does not please us 100%. Old TV isn't the best, we're bored with our relationships, and we refuse to make things work so we throw them out. I've had one to many friends hit this same point with God. He isn't providing a perfect lie, or protecting us from the trials of life and so they turn away from God with a heart of bitterness and resentment towards the Creator of the Universe. How could He allow this? Where was God? We all question God at times but the important thing to remember is while questioning God is important, it is even more important to hold on unswervingly to the hope we profess because the one who promises is faithful.

The meaning of the Iris

In class we were discussing the possible meaning behind the Iris in the painting of Adam and Eve. I was curious about it and looked up what a Purple or Blue Iris would represent. I found that the Iris was originally symbolic for the Greek goddess Iris and stood for power and majesty. The meaning behind the flower grew to include valor, wisdom and faith as well as royalty. Taking that into consideration, the Iris, which is pointing at Eve's womb, has a deeper mean.
My interpretation of the placement is that it is implying that from Eve's womb will come the king, Jesus. We had mentioned the possibility of her appearing pregnant as meaning that from her womb sin will enter the world, but Jesus is also her descendant. Although Eve ate the fruit and her and Adam cause sin to enter the world, she will also give birth to the beginning of the line that will lead to God's son, Jesus. The Iris is symbolic of the eventual birth of Jesus, the Messiah, who will have the wisdom, power and majesty to save the people from sin.