I came across this column on Slate.com called "Blogging the Bible." Basically, the author David Plotz starts from Genesis and has been blogging about his rediscovery of the Bible book by book--he's on the Book of Joshua now. An excerpt from his introduction to this project:
So, what can I possibly do? My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I'm in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus). I love Judaism; I love (most of) the lessons it has taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I am fundamentally ignorant about its foundation, its essential document. So, what will happen if I approach my Bible empty, unmediated by teachers or rabbis or parents? What will delight and horrify me? How will the Bible relate to the religion I practice, and the lessons I thought I learned in synagogue and Hebrew School?Give it a read, if you've got the time.
1 comment:
Wow, what a concept. Actually investigating your religious beliefs yourself rather than taking someone else's word for it. If only that were more widely practiced.
And as for with what you might be uncomfortable, W2, be sure to first put everything through a filter of social context, particularly the OT. First, women and children are no longer property, so instances such as Lot offering his daughters instead of his guests to the angry crowd are out of social context. Focus rather on the lesson of sacrfice to help another than he offered his daughters up for gang rape.
Then there are things like many of the taboos in Leviticus. I think that it's Leviticus 18:27 (I think) that calls eating shellfish an abomination. Are shellfish the fru-its of the deveel? Or, is this a social control? If Hebrews were eating shellfish, then that meant that they were contacting, and probably trading with, non-Hebrews, and that - and not eating a shrimp cocktail - was the real taboo back then.
It just occured to me that you probably already knew this stuff (and then some.) Obviously no offense is meant, just brain dumping.
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