Saturday, August 10, 2019

Loving Scripture

Robert Alter in his office at home in Berkeley, California.

Robert Alter


 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, 

sharper than any two-edged sword,

 piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; 

it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12(NRSV)

When I was a teen and exploring my Christian faith I was struck by the biblical literacy of some of my evangelical friends. They owned bibles, read them, and quoted from them. This wasn't my United Church experience, even though I was a PK (preacher's kid.) I came to realize how selective their reading of scripture could be, with a lot of emphasis on personal salvation and not much interest in the narrative of justice in both Testaments. The bible was often used as a "two-edged sword" to lop off the heads of those who didn't adhere to a sometimes narrow perception of the gospel.

Still, this period of my life awakened me to a love of scripture which was not really reinforced by my seminary training. Even though I learned a great deal it seemed as though that in the theologically liberal environment of Emmanuel College we were doing autopsies of the bible rather than using scholarship to deepen our appreciation. Biblical literalism was not for me, but it was as though the ruach, the pneuma, or breath of the scriptures was smothered by the pillow of the historical-critical method. 

Some of my most satisfying explorations of scripture have been in bible studies with parishioners in every congregation I served who genuinely wanted to discover how it applied to their lives and gave them insight into God and Christ's love. 

Image result for the hebrew bible a translation with commentary

The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary -- Robert Alter


There is a newly published translation of the Hebrew scriptures, what Jews would simply call the bible, by the remarkable scholar, Robert Alter. He has published translations of a number of books and has finally completed all of the Older Testament -- should we call it the Elder Testament. I lust after these three volumes and so far my "lead me not into temptation" prayer has kept me from forking out the $150. I keep telling myself I'm retired, although I'm not retired from my Christian faith or appreciation of the bible!

I invite you to read the lengthy but captivating feature article from last December in the New York Times about this translation by Avi Steinberg. There is too much depth here to adequately precis it. I love his conversation with Alter and I may break down and read my bible more. It was delighted to discover that Alter appreciates The Message paraphrase of the late Eugene Peterson endearing with its description of the uncreated world at the beginning of Genesis as a “soup of nothingness” and has God command his new creation by exclaiming, “Earth, green up!” While The Message has its weaknesses, I used it more and more often as the years went by. 

Did I mention my Gofundme page to raise the money to buy my copy?...

Do you love the bible, or does it confound you -- even scare you? Were you raised to read scripture? Was the bible used as a club or was it "sweeter than honey?" 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/magazine/hebrew-bible-translation.html

Image result for bible cartoons

2 comments:

Judy said...

I was raised in a home where we sat at the table a read scriptures every day. Sometimes it was sweeter than honey and other times it was a threat, to keep me "in line". It was enough to give me a hunger for understanding of the Bible that we call the basis of our Christian faith, and made me take university courses and log on to on line devotional readings on a regular basis. Fortunately, my mother taught me that it is important to read the scriptures with an understanding of the context in which they were written. And there are some passages that I won't read or ever use today!

David Mundy said...

Thanks for this thoughtful response Judy. Hey, something "took!" You have a strong and practical faith to this day. Maybe we should get back to reading at the table with others.