There are many uses of this text, and many of these uses are extrapolations or extreme simplifications. It's certainly not the longest book in the world, even if you consider it as 1 book and not 60+ individual books and letters. There is a lack of continuity and some pretty boring genealogies that make it hard to read the book in a straight shot.
This book will be the center of my discussion for today. I'm going to, for the sake of time, divide people into two camps, which is rude to most people. My groups will be Christians and Non-Christians. I like looking at all issues from both points of view, even if they are polarizing, to give myself a fresh look at my own views.
To Non-Christians
Please do your homework better.
I do realize it is easy to pick on us. But, there are some of us that do not like Sarah Palin. There are some of us who do not like Isreal's policies. There are some of us who do not assert that we should "kill 'em all" to solve all of the world's problems. There are some of us who *GASP* support gay marriage.
So, here's some free advice. If you say I gave you this info, I will deny it.
First, don't take haphazard shots at the Bible. If you want to have any impact, you have to be careful. I love the TED talks, but they are a bunch of GHLs (God Hating Liberals). A speaker gave a great talk on ants. She pointed out that there were a number of ants who sat under the surface and didn't seem to be doing anything. This seemed to contradict the following verse as there were many ants not working:
Proverbs 6
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
Everyone in the audience had a nice little laugh. Surely, this has turned the Bible on its head... Ugh... Well, the Sabbath system indicates that we should surely not work all the time, that there is a time for rest. She continued by talking about the structure of the colony. She said that contrary to modern belief, the ants had no central command system. Most ants had no communication with the queen. So, the ants just knew what to do with no central authority. She failed to mention the next verse.
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
Accurate? Well, from a primitive eye this could also be derived, so I guess it's not remarkable. But, it's not wrong. The next verse is the one that seems wrong. Perhaps she should have mentioned it.
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
Do ants really follow that cycle? I guess it really wouldn't matter, as it's a metaphor. Oh well. Nobody's perfect. However, if you want to be more credible, you have to try harder. I'm going to give you some sure fire arguments that will make your chaps think that you're a genus. (It may seem odd that I'm going to advise you to do the opposite of what I'd like you to do... But I guess I think it's kinda fun. I'd like someone to argue with.)
1. Marriage. Christians make a big deal about this. Did you know that the word marriage is only used 84 times in the Bible? The words "wife" and "husband" are used a lot. Should they really make such a big deal about this? Christians talk a lot about the Biblical definition of marriage. Where is it? It never says explicitly that marriage is between a man and a woman. The Levitical ban on homosexuality is really just a ban on homosexual sex, not relationships.
In fact, it was more about sex than we might like to admit... The word for marriage in Hebrew means the following:
H5772
עונה
From an unused root apparently meaning to dwell together; (sexual) cohabitation: - duty of marriage.
It's more like a "common law" marriage, no ceremony is implied. The Bible refers to someone's husband and wife, but the process of getting married is usually left out. Such dreams that we implant in the minds of little girls range from Santa to this idea that she will be so special in her white dress, if only for a day. In fact, having read through the Bible a couple of times, I can't think of any marriage ceremony. I must be missing something, but it's surely not the big deal that we've made it into. Shouldn't we put our resources towards things that are more important than floral arrangements?
2. Abortion. It's never mentioned. Any view on this issue is an extrapolation. Even if life starts at conception, if a fertilized egg fails to embed, does this make the woman a murderer? Of course not. The line in the sand where we define life in general is murky.
3. Women's rights.
1 Corinthians 14:33 ... As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
(If these don't work, you could tell them that the phrase "birth certificate" doesn't appear in the constitution.)
In closing, the main advice I'd give you is that Christians don't really care when you make fun of them. In fact, you may encourage them. They're suffering for their faith because of you! Knock it off! The last helpful thing would be for us to be even more self-righteous.
Oh, and not all of us watch FOX News either.
To Christians
Hi!
I would really like to get rid of the verse numbers. It would be great to get rid of the chapter numbers too. Some of those divisions are artificial to the text. There were some natural divisions, such as paragraphs, which should be maintained as would be useful in any text. I am far from an expert in this case, but I know what I read nightly is not read as it was written... And I don't plan on learning Greek and Hebrew anytime soon, but a more perfect translation would be good. I think Robert Alter does a pretty good job, but I'd like to see an equivalent in the NT. And I'd like it to be popular too.
The use of the Bible by Christians is skewed by its division into chapter and verse. It makes it too easy to skip the tough parts of the text. You could memorize 100 verses about love, but a thoughtful consideration of views presented will work better for nonbelievers than a few sound bytes. Have you considered that God wanted to kill the Hebrews in the desert? Have you considered that a husband can make his wife go through a trial if he has feelings of jealously? Have you considered that the Israelites had to kill some of the people in the land, including women, children and beasts (everything with breath)? Have you considered the incest in Kind David's family? Have you considered that parents had to eat their own children before the Hebrews were carried off into exile? That's just off of the top of my head. Do the verses you know about God make Him the God that presided over these events? Was God's plan for these people's lives really that well thought out?
In the grand scheme of Bible, all of these events do mesh together. God is unique from us as the creator of life and he is just in the afterlife. If a child dies, will God not be just? I get too caught up in this life. I focus too much on things being fair here. I really should only be concerned with serving, and looking forward to great things to come.
We are often convinced that there is power in verses. There is, but I think there is much greater power in a through understanding of who God is and how the seemingly megalomaniac God of the OT can be the same God that dies on a cross for me. Reading Leviticus, Job, Lamentations and many other books of the Old Testament is pretty tough. But I learned a powerful lesson a couple of years ago when I finally dug through it. I wish I had done it sooner.
We should have a faith that can confront the issues raised above. Don't look for easy answers, don't look for sound bytes. Look for a journey. Look for a tough journey.
1 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV) When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
love,
Dave
P.S. I do realize that I just used a "sound byte verse" to make a point. LOL!?! Oh, and some funny internet pics:
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