Esther J Harmon's excellent article explores the complexities and - yes - contradictions within the text of the book sacred to both Judaism and Christianity. Harmon writes from a Jewish perspective, but much of what she says applies as well to how Christians read both Hebrew and Christian testaments.The Bible is a remarkable collection of countless people's perspectives from a broad range of locations over the course of centuries. In this amazing assortment of texts, we see all of these different people -- individuals and groups -- reflecting on who they are, who their God is and how they see the relationships between themselves, their God, their land, their neighbors and more.
The spectrum of voices in the Bible is astonishing. Writers of biblical texts reflect northern and southern perspectives (Israelite and Judahite); urban and rural; rich and poor; they are priests and poets, shepherds and elite literate professionals in royal scribal circles; people living in Jerusalem and Babylon and Persia and more. It should therefore not surprise us that some of these people differ in how they see the world.Harmon reminds us far more eloquently than I ever could that humans wrote the texts from differing perspectives, and they did not write as though they were copying dictation from God.
Some readers will find the acknowledgement of a multiplicity of voices in the Bible objectionable. But these are texts written by human beings with human viewpoints. Attributing perfection to them is idolatry, and God-as-ventriloquist is bad theology. So given that the writers were human, wouldn't we expect a better reflection of reality to come from the collection of a spectrum of voices than from any one person purporting to speak for everyone? And if a person believes God to be behind the process of these many texts being written and preserved and recopied and collected and becoming "The Bible," it should, for such a person, be that much more important to explore the relationship between the writers' perspectives.As Harmon states, to note the many different voices in the Scriptures is not a matter of looking at the Bible from a liberal or a conservative viewpoint but is rather to study what is actually in the texts, to note what is known of the identity of the persons who wrote the words, and to explore the context in which the words were written. Do read the entire article. Esther Harmon is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Union Theological Seminary.
Thanks to Patricia on Face book for the link.
This is exactly what you learn in the first year of EFM. I wish more churches/denominations would offer these kind of courses/lessons in their churches.
ReplyDeleteHillbilly, I've been taught consistently about the many voices in the Scriptures in Bible study classes in the Episcopal Church. The lessons are available for those who wish to learn.
ReplyDeleteIn our own denomination, yes... but there are so many others that don't (most of the churches I grew up in prior to finding the Episcopal Church). You're told to read the Bible, know it's The Word of God, do some exegesis based only on the text itself, and that's it. It lead to a great grounding in scripture itself, but no history or context to help understand it better. I believe with all my heart that it's a huge part of the reason fundamentalism has such a hold in so many congregations.
DeleteTrue, Hillbilly. I don't know what we can do about those trapped in the non-errant, fundamentalist perspective on the Bible.
DeleteI grew up in the Roman Catholic church. Until I was an adult, reading the Bible was not much encouraged, but that had changed by the time I left.
The Word of God is a person, not a book. The Word was in the beginning before there was the word of God called the Bible.
Harmon's essay is really the reverse of traditional Jewish teacihng, phrased in the statement that the Torah has seventy faces--meaning, in plain modern English that while there is one Author of Scripture (and you can guess who the Author is because I'm capitalizing the word), there is almost an infinite number of meanings in the text--God being God can do that--and therefore everyone will find in Scripture a meaning that is personal to himself/herself, and that no one else could find. And because of this approach, the capacity to find new meanings is almost unlimited. Rabbi Akiva was credited with finding meaning in the calligraphic ornaments--but even the less spectacular glosses can give out profound meaning. for instance, when God accuses Cain of killing Abel, He says "the blood of your brother calls out from the ground". But the Hebrew actually gives blood in plural form--the bloods of your brother--and the Rabbis saw in this a referernce not only to the spilled blood of Abel but also the unborn progeny of Abel whom he would have produced had he lived his natural lifespan, for whose non-birth Cain bears the guilt along with his actual act of homicide.
ReplyDeleteIt's that sort of deep meaning that makes me think accepting divine inspiration in its literal sense enriches one's spiritual and ethical life, not impoverishes it.
kishnevi, thanks for enlightenment on another perspective on reading the Torah, which could lead to rich meaning for the individual. The method of study seems to give great leeway to interpretation.
ReplyDelete