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<div>Computer issues the last couple of weeks...sorry for the delay...</div>
<div>Ellie :<br>
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<span class="yiv1677860961mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;overflow:hidden;visibility:hidden;">Should we even bother with it
at all ...?</span>
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much should we teach<br>
our children about the Bible?</h1>
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Essay by
Cindy Wang Brandt<br>
October 10, 2019</span></span>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The Bible
is one of the most
dangerous texts in human
history. <br>
<br>
Some of the most egregious
acts in civilization find
their justification in
Scripture, from genocide
to slavery to deadly
homophobia. History proves
that the Bible, read with
nefarious hermeneutics, in
the hands of powerful
figures can cause
catastrophe. Perhaps this
is why many of us are
nervous about how to
approach the Bible with
children and teens. The
stakes feel high, like
handing a loaded gun to a
toddler. If you have any
dose of humility about our
limitations with engaging
the text, you know this is
a weighty task.<br>
<br>
How much should we teach
our children about the
Bible?<br>
What stories should we
highlight? Avoid?<br>
When and what
developmental stage do we
introduce historical
context? Genre?
Translation?<br>
What hermeneutical lens do
we give them? In what
community?<br>
Should we even bother with
it at all if the Bible
isn’t a children’s book?<br>
<br>
I think a lot of us
wrestle with these
questions because of our
own discomfort with the
Holy Text. Fundamentalists
have no problems teaching
the Bible to their kids,
they happily institute
Bible memorization
routines at home and
endorse sword drills at
Sunday School. When you
believe the Bible is
written by a puppeteering
God moving the hands of
biblical authors to write
down literal facts, you
don’t teach the Bible to
children with nuance. <br>
<br>
But for those of us who
desire a deeper
conversation on the truth
and authority of the
Bible, we need clarity on
our own relationship with
it to help guide our
children. When it comes to
the Bible, just like in
all other areas of faith
and parenting, the best
course of action isn’t to
hand neat packages of
certain answers to them,
but to strive for as much
honesty as we can. This
builds trust and gives our
children permission to
respond with equal measure
of authenticity, not only
in their relationship to
you but their own faith
journey. <br>
<br>
The reality is that we all
land on different points
along a spectrum when it
comes to the amount of
meaning and authority and
impact we ascribe to the
Bible. The Bible as we
know it today was birthed
by a group of believers
who agreed together to
confer and submit the
ultimate authority to a
particular set of books,
thereby canonizing it. <br>
<br>
To use a parenting
metaphor, when a person
adopts a child, how true
is it that the child is
now that person’s child?
It is as true as the level
of reverence one ascribes
to the adoption laws of
the land, as well as the
amount of meaning they
give to any rituals of
adoption. <br>
<br>
The Bible may not contain
literal facts of say, when
the earth was formed or
historical genealogies,
but it is as true as it
can be for a mother to
claim a non-biological
child as her own. <br>
<br>
As much as the Bible has
the capacity to harm, it
can also have the capacity
to heal and to do good.
The text is a “living
word,” because the person
and the community they are
situated in, are living
human beings who engage in
the task of
interpretation. One of the
things I have learned from
the rich traditions of
liberation theologies is
that the text can be used
to set people free.
Feminist readings of the
Bible reveal the work of
women invisibilized by the
text, and empower women to
“take back” the text for
their own thriving.
Childist readings do the
same for children. <br>
<br>
What liberation theologies
teach us is that when
traditionally marginalized
voices join in the task of
interpreting Scripture, it
opens the text up to
revealing biases against
oppressed people groups,
it gives us permission to
tell biblical stories in
subversive ways, and it
has the tremendous power
to upset the status quo,
resulting in better
theology, more just
societies, and a more
fulfilling personal
transformation. <br>
<br>
When we consider how to
“teach” the Bible to
children, the foremost
question we should be
asking is: are we inviting
children, a people group
whose personhood and human
rights have only been
recognized by the United
Nations as recently as
1989, into the
hermeneutical task? Are
communities of faith
willing to boldly give
children as much power as
they need when it comes to
approaching the Bible? <br>
<br>
This means making ample
space for children to
interrogate the text, not
only in curious
inquisition about the
details of the stories,
but to pronounce judgments
of it. It’s nothing short
of gaslighting to tell a
child they cannot say “the
Bible is wrong,” should
they point out some of the
blatantly violent acts of
biblical characters,
including God. <br>
<br>
Including children in the
hermeneutical task also
means allowing them to
re-tell traditional
stories in ways that
benefit them instead of
the many ways the Bible
brutalizes children. The
near sacrifice of Isaac is
a classic text of terror
against children—that a
father would treat his son
the way Abraham treated
Isaac is abusive and
requires condemnation or a
subversive re-telling.<br>
<br>
A dialogue with a
ten-year-old with their
mother went like this,
according to an epigraph
of the book, “<em>The
Children of Israel</em>,”<br>
<br>
“Mom, asked the
ten-year-old, “can anyone
write a Bible?”<br>
“Hmmm…that’s an
interesting question. Why
do you ask?”<br>
“Because I have some
important things to say
about God, and I think I’d
like to write a Bible.”<br>
“Well, I suppose you could
write one. The real
question would be, would
other people want to read
it?”<br>
“Why wouldn’t they want to
read it? I know a lot
about God and the way
people ought to treat each
other.”<br>
“Do you think your
perspective on these
things would be
significantly different
from that of the Bible we
read in church?”<br>
“Mom, really! Just how
many ten-year-olds do you
think helped write that?”<br>
<br>
If we are wanting the
Bible to be authoritative
in any measure for our
children, we better ensure
they play an equal part in
the task of
interpretation. In fact,
given children’s position
of vulnerability in the
world, we would do well to
afford them even more
access and power in order
to tip a scale heavily
weighted against them. <br>
<br>
Having established that we
are willing to invite
children into full
engagement with the text,
the question remains how
we initiate that process. <br>
<br>
The three main factors to
take into consideration
is:</span></span></div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
child’s temperament,</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
parents in establishment
of the family’s values,</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
various communities the
child inhabits.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">A child’s
temperament would indicate
their particular desires
for exploration of faith
and the texts and
traditions that shape the
faith. This would help
determine how much and how
early you want to
introduce the Bible to
them. It would also help
the parent discern whether
to introduce images and
stories that may be
violent. I know many
people, myself included,
who were traumatized by
images of the crucifixion
because it was exposed to
us at too tender of an
age. I think children have
remarkable resilience for
gritty stories, and we
certainly should strive to
be as honest as possible
about hard topics like
death, sacrifice, and
evil. But the way we
introduce these topics
require sensitivity to
children’s anxieties,
always offering tools to
provide security and
belonging in addition to
tackling hard issues.
Protect and guide our
children into the world of
Scripture, as you would in
gentle leadership of their
other experiences of
life. <br>
<br>
How early and how often
you want to incorporate
Scripture into your family
life depends on the
parents’ relationship with
the Bible. If it is part
of your everyday routine
or weekly/seasonal ritual,
or drives your personal
values as well as your
hopes for your family’s
values, then I imagine the
Bible would very early on
become part of the
conversations you have
with your child. As I
referenced in the
introduction, often we are
fearful of exposing
children to such a
complicated text because
of our own spiritual
baggage of witnessing the
damage it can inflict if
not treated carefully. But
fear is only one of many
factors we consult in
making parenting
decisions. To keep our
children from
participating in something
that means a lot to us
feels unnatural and
unnecessary. <br>
<br>
However, sharing faith and
Scripture is simply that.
It is offering the
children an invitation to
your priorities without
any coercion that it needs
to be theirs. It’s fair
and just to maintain a
posture of both inclusion
and autonomy in our family
relationships. Claim
however much value you
ascribe to the Bible and
share it honestly with
your child, always with
the addendum that they can
grow into their own
relationship with it. <br>
<br>
Lastly, our children
operate in multiple
spheres of life,
increasingly so as they
grow and move outward
beyond your family unit.
And because the Bible is
read in conjunction with
the community we inhabit,
it’s good to remember that
our children will engage
with the text from the
influences of more than
one community.<br>
<br>
This means we can teach
our children one way of
reading the Bible, with
lots of permission to
argue with the text as I
suggest, and they may go
out and see a billboard
proof-texting a verse
threatening people to
hell, and that too becomes
part of our children’s
hermeneutical lens. They
may hear a story told a
certain way at the Baptist
VBS, and hear a whole
other interpretation from
their atheist teacher from
school. <br>
<br>
To me, that’s generally a
good thing, because
multiplicity of
interpretations provide
somewhat of a check and
balance to one dogmatic
way, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=a0d366d4fd&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the danger
of a single story</a>,
as author Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie warns. But it
requires us to be aware
and intentional about
curating our children’s
worlds. For example, I
would be reticent to send
my child to an
interpretive community
that does not allow them
to question the Bible, or
I would be sure to counter
balance it with extra time
and space to deconstruct
that violation of their
autonomy. Most
importantly, I would want
to give them the tools I
have at my disposal to
engage critically
themselves as they begin
to operate in the various
arenas of their
influence. <br>
<br>
Before I conclude this
article, I’d be remiss to
not address people/parents
who have experienced
personal trauma by
Scripture. I think of
LGBTQ folks who have been
“clobbered” by a handful
of verses to extensive
harm. There are many ways
(& many books!) to
establish a loving
relationship with your
children and open them up
to a world of critical
thinking and engagement
with the world, you
certainly do not need to
pick up the instrument of
your trauma. I hope that
one day, according to your
healing timeline, you’ll
be able to share even this
painful story of your
encounter with Scripture
with your children so they
may know of the dark ways
Scripture is wielded for
harm, as well as
appreciating the many ways
you are breaking the cycle
of your past pain for
their flourishing. <br>
<br>
Because if there is one
thing I hope to impart to
my own children about the
Bible, it’s that nothing
written on paper ever
matters more than living
human stories. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ Cindy
Wang Brandt</span></span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Read
online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=90774be56a&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Cindy
Wang Brandt is a
progressive Christian
writer, but she has not
always identified as
progressive. In fact, she
grew up conservative
evangelical and was a
career missionary for 5
and a half years. Cindy's
experienced a radical
faith shift and writes
often about how that
shapes who she is today.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Along the
way, she became a parent.
Trying to navigate
parenting when your faith
has and is evolving has
been complicated—but
nobody ever said parenting
is easy. However, she is
convinced that one of the
best ways we can make an
impact in the world is to
invest in the slow, unseen
labor of cultivating
values of hospitality,
creativity, equality,
social justice, and deep
spirituality in the next
generation.</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="
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letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Question
& Answer</span></h1>
<h3 style="
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">Q: By
Tom</span></strong><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><em>One
of the reasons I wanted
to reread his book was
to see if I could get a
different viewpoint on
being a Christian within
the “church.” I am still
flummoxed as to why
Bishop Spong is a
Christian. He appears to
be more of a humanist
(non-capitalized).<br>
<br>
Why is the Bible sacred?
It’s like a compendium
of authors writing over
a thousand years. And,
yes, they all seem to be
writing about a
supernatural entity. But
that’s because the only
early writers tended to
be either state actors
or religious leaders.<br>
<br>
The other reason I read
the book was that I
started out as a Billy
Graham=born-again
Presbyterian, moved into
atheism, then pantheism,
and recently back as an
atheist. I am still
searching. No one has
the answers. If someone
could assist me in
explaining rationally
what makes Bishop Spong
a Christian, I would be
very grateful. </em></span></span></div>
<h3 style="
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">A:
By Rev. Gretta Vosper</span></strong></span></h3>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><a style="
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=b435eec2d4&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><img width="150" height="181" align="left" style="
border:0px;width:150px;
min-height:181px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;
outline:none;
text-decoration:none;
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Dear Tom,</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">I
understand your confusion
around Bishop Spong’s
claim to be a Christian
and hope that I can help
you lay the quandary
aside.<br>
<br>
You see, I am a Christian,
too. But I’m also an
atheist. And I have been
an atheist for most of my
life, though I didn’t
claim the term until
several years ago. Few,
these days, would be
comfortable hearing me
identify as a Christian,
and I don’t do it publicly
very often. They believe
there needs to be a
defining line: you’re this
or you’re that; you cannot
be both.<br>
<br>
But Jack and I refuse that
line. I grew up in the
church, too, though my
belief system developed
far more loosely than
either yours or Jack’s. My
Christian upbringing was
decidedly in the camp
yours would have dismissed
or maligned as unChristian
or heretical. My Sunday
School curriculum taught
me that God was love and
Jesus was this cool guy
who taught us that we
needed to love one
another. As a teenager, I
delighted in the
psychedelic “Live Love”
stickers and adorned my
school binders with them.
When I entered theological
college as an adult, I was
relieved when my studies
provided the foundations
over which my beliefs had
already been floating: the
Bible was a collection of
stories which, as you’ve
noted in your question,
were written by many
different people over
millennia; God was a
concept we needed to
wrestle with as we
formulated our own truths;
and Jesus was a man who
lived a long time ago and
taught us some challenging
and interesting things,
but wasn’t perfect. None
of us are.<br>
<br>
The stories of
Christianity, indeed the
stories of all religions,
are woven and wrapped
around human truths; it
isn’t the other way
‘round, as many religions
continue to proclaim. Awe
and wonder, conviction and
repentance, gratitude and
appreciation, sorrow,
lament, and need: all
these are human truths and
human realities. Over the
course of our history, in
every corner of the world,
we’ve sought solace and
encouragement, meaning and
destiny. We’ve done it
through the tools our
religions have handed us,
simply because they were
there for that use.<br>
<br>
Jack and I know those
tools inside and out; Jack
much more intimately and
comprehensively than I. We
see the world through the
templates of Christianity.
We engage with it through
the roots of our faith.
While my congregation no
longer celebrates Palm
Sunday or Easter, we live
the Biblical story that
was woven of the truths
and metaphors that reside
at the heart of human
existence: the dreams we
have and the elation we
know when we achieve them;
the desolation of
rejection and betrayal
when they crash against
the violence of reality;
and the gift that it is,
for each one of us, when
we pick up the thread of
someone else’s broken
dream – an end to violence
against women; the
forgiveness of crippling
national debt; the fight
for the future of our
planet – and carry it
forward. These are basic
themes of the human
journey; Christianity got
them right when they wove
the story of persecution,
passion, death, and
resurrection. The stories
bring us back to face and
accept those truths in our
own lives.<br>
<br>
Jack’s world is informed,
as is mine, by those
stories. For decades now,
he has looked beneath them
and worked to untangle the
threads that have held
them together. And at the
end of his work, he has,
every time, grasped the
one thread that was worthy
of you and me and humanity
and lifted it up, offering
it to us to hold and use
as we will. He calls
himself a Christian
because he lives his life
through the stories to
which his life was and
remains bound. I am so
grateful for his efforts
there and for the gift and
permission he has given to
me to do so as well.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ Rev.
Gretta Vosper<br>
<br>
Read and share online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=682d1a0edc&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong><br>
The Rev. Gretta Vosper is
a United Church of Canada
minister who is an
atheist. Her best-selling
books include <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=4c07c5a913&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>With or
Without God: Why The
Way We Live is More
Important Than What We
Believe</em></a>, and <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=44699edb34&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Amen:
What Prayer Can Mean
in a World Beyond
Belief</em></a>. She
has also published three
books of poetry and
prayers.</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="
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line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;"><span style="font-size:22px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Bishop
John Shelby Spong
Revisited</span></span></h1>
<h3 style="
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:18px;">The
Origins of the Bible, Part
IV: <br>
The Story of the Yahwist
Document</span></span></h3>
<br>
<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Essay
by Bishop John Shelby Spong<br>
April 9, 2008</span></span><br>
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Thus far
in this series on the
origins of the Bible, my
efforts have been directed
toward how the Torah,
which contains the oldest
material found in the
Bible, came into being.
The Torah, also called
“The Law” and “The Books
of Moses,” is the Jewish
name for the first five
books of the Bible:
Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. Their
creation in the world of
literature did not happen
the way many people today
seem to think. No one,
including Moses, simply
sat down and started
writing. In fact, the
Torah was written over a
period of about 500 years
by a series of authors.
Many of the stories told
in this part of the Bible
were a combination of
myths, folk tales and
political propaganda with
only the slightest bit, if
any, of actual historical
memory. The opening
biblical stories from Adam
and Eve through the flood
have absolutely no
connection with history,
despite the fact that some
of the world’s more
foolish people still try
to locate the Noah’s ark
on Mt Ararat. The first
shred of history appears
in the Abraham story and
it is slight indeed. If a
person named Abraham lived
at all it would have been
about 900 years or 45
generations prior to the
writing of the Abraham
story in the book of
Genesis. Moses, the
greatest hero in the
Jewish story, lived about
300 years or 15
generations before the
Moses narratives in were
written in Exodus and as
many as 700 years before
the Moses stories that
appear in Deuteronomy.<br>
<br>
This means that most of
these biblical accounts
are not history at all, at
least not in any technical
sense, but are rather
interpretive folk lore.
That needs to be said
again and again. Even
after constant repetition
it is hard to make this
truth heard, since most
people have grown up in
the power of 2000 years of
literalization that
continues to affect our
reasoning today. In this
column, I want to trace in
more detail the beginning
of what is called “The
Yahwist Document” that
scholars today designate
as the oldest part of the
Torah and thus the oldest
part of the biblical
story.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Writing
history, which is what the
Torah purported to be, is
an activity that normally
starts only when a nation
has become established and
secure enough to begin to
look at itself with some
objectivity. While the
Jews were fleeing Egypt,
journeying through the
wilderness, or invading
and conquering the land of
the Canaanites, there was
little time or interest in
transforming its
experienced history into a
written narrative. It is
also important to note
that in the ancient world,
one who could write was
first of all rare, a skill
possessed in the tenth
century BCE in the Middle
East by less than one
tenth of one percent of
the entire population.
Thus the one who wrote
this first part of the
Torah can be accurately
presumed to have been high
in either government or
ecclesiastical circles.
Writing also required
considerable wealth, or at
least access to wealth,
since both parchment and
ink were very expensive.
We can assume, therefore,
that both education and
wealth were the marks of
this original author of
biblical material.
Inevitably, such a person
would reflect the
attitudes and biases of
the ruling classes which
he represented. I use the
word “he” not to be
insensitive, but to
recognize the fact that in
this period of history the
privileges of education
and status had simply not
yet been conferred upon
women.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
Yahwist Document got its
name from the fact that
this narrative referred to
God by the name Yahweh
(YHWH), the name it
claimed had been revealed
to Moses at the “burning
bush.” Those letters in
Hebrew were in some way
identified with the verb
“to be” and it was
translated in the book of
Exodus to mean, “I am that
I am.” Since the verb “to
be” is the foundation verb
of any language, it seemed
to be a fitting name for
the deity who was regarded
as the foundation of the
tribe’s identity.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">When this
strand of material is
lifted out of the Torah
and separated from the
later strands, its
historical setting becomes
immediately visible. The
Jewish nation has been
established. Saul, the
first king, a member of
the tribe of Benjamin, had
been unable to secure his
throne. The narrative
describes Saul as a
melancholy, depressed man,
who could not unite the
various tribes of Israel.
When all of Saul’s sons,
save for a crippled child,
were killed along with the
King in a battle against
the Philistines at Mt.
Giboa, his throne was
claimed by his military
captain, a man named
David. It is David who is
the clear hero of this
Yahwist writer. David was
portrayed as chosen by God
and anointed by the
prophet Samuel to be king
of the Jews at a very
early age, indeed while
still a shepherd boy
keeping the flocks of his
father Jesse. Heroic tales
had obviously gathered
around him in the memory
of the people as tends to
happen to a popular
leader. It was said of the
young David that he had
killed a lion, a bear and
finally that he had killed
Goliath, a Philistine.
When David moved to claim
the throne for himself,
the Yahwist writer
suggests that he
immediately instituted a
series of political moves
to solidify that claim and
to win popular support. He
ordered a national time
for mourning the deaths of
King Saul and his sons,
punished anyone who
appeared to take pleasure
in Saul’s demise and made
plans to conquer the city
of the Jebusites, called
Jerusalem, to make it his
new capital. If he was
going to unite the
disparate tribes of Israel
into a single political
entity he needed a neutral
city as a symbol of that
new unity into which he
intended to call the
people of his nation.
These tactics appeared to
work. With his power at
home firmly established,
David began to expand his
realm with a series of
military victories. In the
final test for a monarch,
David completed a forty
year reign and then was
able to pass his throne on
to his son Solomon, thus
establishing the
continuity of his nation
in a continuing royal
family. Among his last
acts according to this
narrative was to delegate
to his son Solomon the
task of building the
Temple in Jerusalem, which
would make that city not
just the political, but
also the spiritual capital
of the Jewish people. With
these three institutions
now established, the
throne of David, the city
of Jerusalem and the
Temple of Solomon that was
finished in the first
decade of King Solomon’s
rule, the time was right
for someone to set this
nation into the stream of
history by telling their
national story. That was
the setting in which a
court historian, perhaps a
member of the royal
family, perhaps a priest
associated with the
Temple, or perhaps someone
who was both, was
commissioned, probably by
the king, to write the
history of this Hebrew
nation. This is how the
first strand of that
material, which would
later be called “Sacred
Scripture,” came into
being.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The date
was some time around the
year 950 BCE. Solomon had
been on the throne for
about a decade. The Jewish
people had become wealthy
because tribute money from
David’s conquests was now
flowing into Jerusalem.
This part of the Middle
East was at peace. The
Temple, thought to be
God’s earthly dwelling
place, was complete and
the life of the nation was
widely believed to be
resting safely in the arms
of its two protectors, God
and the King. This was the
time to write the story of
their origins. So the work
of the Yahwist writer was
begun.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">When his
story was complete, the
image of Israel as God’s
chosen people was secure.
It was buttressed by the
claims made in this
narrative. They were
basically three: God had
chosen the House of David,
and thus the tribe of
Judah, to rule over the
chosen people, the will of
God was expressed through
the Temple in which God
lived as a protective
presence, and the high
priest specifically and
the Temple priesthood in
general were alone
designated to order the
religious life of the
nation as the sign of
God’s continuous blessing.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">As soon
as this narrative was
complete, it began to be
read as part of the
liturgy of the people
gathered in the Temple for
worship, as is the destiny
of all sacred scripture.
In that process this
narrative with its power
claims achieved the status
of being “God’s revealed
truth.” This idea was
certainly encouraged by
the priesthood, who were
well served as the aura of
sanctity began to grow
around these words. It
also served the interests
of the royal family since
what came to be called
“God’s Word” affirmed
their divine right to
rule. The role of
Jerusalem in the national
life of the Jews as a
symbol of the people’s
unity was established. In
this manner the vested
interests of each of
Jerusalem’s power centers
were solidified. The
Jewish people, so recently
a loose knit confederation
ruled by local judges and
worshiping at shrines
located in Hebron,
Beersheba and Bethel, now
found unity in a new
federation that was being
imposed on them as nothing
less than an expression of
the will of God.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">In a
world in which there was
no division between Church
and State (i.e. religion
and politics), this first
text to become part of the
scriptures of the people
was in fact a very
political document. By
tracing the Jewish story
from creation to the call
of Abraham, this narrative
had gone from the
universal beginning of
human history to the dawn
of their own national
history. By relating the
stories of Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob and Joseph this
narrative established, as
both legitimate and moral,
the Jewish claim to the
land that they had in fact
conquered. By
incorporating the ancient
shrines of Hebron,
Beersheba and Bethel into
their story they
identified the religious
traditions of the past
with a new center in
Jerusalem, which was their
ultimate and grander
successor. By telling the
story of the noble history
of the Jews prior to
falling into slavery in
Egypt, this narrative
rebuilt their national
reputation. It was
political propaganda at
its best, a powerful and
effective attempt to
define what it meant to be
a Jew, a member of the
“Chosen People.”</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">What
would happen, however, if
and when the Jewish nation
was ever to be divided in
civil war? Such a
rebellion would have to be
against the scriptures as
well as against the Temple
and the King. That was
destined to occur sometime
after 920 and the death of
Solomon. That was when the
second strand of material
that composes the Torah
today came into being. To
that story, I will turn
when this series
continues.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ John
Shelby Spong</span></span></div>
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