Gotta get this out of my system. There's this book. You probably know the title. Might even have an old copy around the house. Maybe you've read it, or parts of it in the course of your life. If you're of my generation, maybe you spent some time in one kind of church or synagogue. In that case, you probably know some of what's in that book. Right – the Bible. By the way, the English word "Bible" comes from the Greek word biblios (biblios) which simply means "book". Why would I need to write a piece on "The Bible" in a blog about "geocosmysticism"? Two reasons. 1) I grew up in a Bible-reading and preaching church, learned to enjoy reading and studying the Bible as a student of religion and literature in college, immersed myself in biblical scholarship in seminary school, and spent a decade and a half of my life preaching and teaching from Bible texts. I have been formed in a Bible culture, and even though I have separated officially from the Christian ministry, and my beliefs have shifted away from those of the "confessional" Church, the language, stories and images from the Bible live in me and continue to sustain me upon my spiritual journey. I continue to believe there is wisdom to be mined in the Bible, and in other ancient, sacred texts. 2) The majority of my community today are self-described "pagans", "witches", "animists" and atheists, groups that have not been welcomed … no, let me speak plainly ... groups that have been (and continue to be) identified as "enemies of God", by "Bible-believing" people and churches, and persecuted by "Christian society" with the intention of conversion, marginalization or extermination. Others of my friends and family, for any number of reasons, have concluded that the Bible, as a key symbol of "organized religion", is irrelevant at best, dangerous at worst. When I quote the Bible, which I do infrequently, I can feel them withdraw from me. I guess, if I'm honest, I feel hurt by that. But I also understand this ambivalence or antipathy toward the Bible. The book has been misused to justify abuses from wife beating to slavery, from witch burning to apartheid. My "dear people" are fully justified, in my opinion, to be suspicious, if not hostile, toward a book that continues to be used by many to fuel prejudice and worse. So, I may mention Jesus or Moses or By the way, Jesus was more than the first non-violent revolutionary (Stephen Stills). He was a very radical geocosmystic! |
Monday, April 13, 2009
The Bible
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I never want to make you feel "less" because of your beliefs, past, present or future. I respect your ever-evolving spirituality completely. That said, my feelings on the Bible are thus; It is just a book, written by men, compiled hundreds of years after its parts were supposedly written. It has been heavily edited. Other gospels with the same level of validity and provenance were ignored for Church political reasons (Roman Catholic Church, that is). In turn, the King James version, upon which almost all modern versions are based, is proven to be a horridly intentional mistranslation. One obvious example is the passage that reads to us as, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". The actual literal translation of the original Hebrew should read, "thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live". A slight difference, and one of many that were put in place to serve the male-centric Christian politics of the time, further demonizing women as the root of Sin. To me, the bible is an interesting book of myth, much like the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, etc. There is, indeed, much wisdom and good to be mined from it. My problem with any of the modern religions is that the Bible, the Quran, the Torah and other such works are looked upon as holy rote by the followers of these religions, taught as the direct word of god, which is patently false. Rigid, blind adherence to a poorly, inaccurately written 1500 year old book is just plain stupid. It is a valuable historical text, but would be more so if all the original gospel scrolls and texts that are known and available would be brought together by scholars who can be somewhat objective, translated accurately and shown to the world in some logical compilation. Unfortunately, too many minds are closed so tightly these days that one seemingly needs a can opener to gain access. >sigh< To me, Jesus was a heck of a guy who tried to do a lot of good. He got deified against his will, and in the end, was made a scapegoat of Biblical proportion. The bible itself is not evil, just heavily flawed as a work of literature and history. The Evil comes from those who use it as a weapon, a tool of control and a shelter from real truth.
ReplyDeleteWB63 - excellent points. It takes a bit of digging to get beneath the political, gender and other bigotries that the English translations perpetuate. The whole evolutionary sweep of language development - from grunts to spoken syllables to bardic storytelling to primitive inscription to printing and photocopying to digital display - every transition brings along its own prejudices. A mythic overlay of sacral power has been conveyed with every translation and transmission of "holy writ". I was taught in Sunday School that the Bible itself was "holy", and to be regarded as a living thing. It took many years to unpack the meaning of that, and most Sunday Schoolers just carry that superstition into their adult set of beliefs. There are even cautions in the biblical text itself about over-attachment to the "letter" and forgetting about "spirit". I'm so glad that the gnostic gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls and other codices have found their way into print. Some preachers are even using these and other "non-canonical" texts in their Sunday sermons ... may it ever continue!
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