We don’t believe what we believe because of the Bible; we quote what we quote because of what we believe. As I've come to expect, excellent commentary.
OMG! You’re from Tennessee??!! You surely don’t sound like it. I wandered in that wilderness for seven years of famine. People were politely cruel in ways no New Yorker would ever dream of being.
Agree...it was a culture shock for me, a new yorker, to move to Richmond, VA. A neighbor who used to 'cut' my grass always quoted the Bible..well his anyway...until I told him to stop and asked if he had any thought of his own!
Agewise, I'm a bit in front of you, Rami, as I am trying to get through the next 7 weeks or so to hit the big 8 0. This is so that I can truly have said in my eulogy what I have written to be said: "Ted lived to fulfil the Scriptures. Knowing he couldn't fulfil every text he has done his darndest to fulfil Ps 90, 7-10. Vs 7 8 & 9 have so far taken care of themselves and he has almost fulfilled vs 10." [Hoping to be able to change that last bit come September] :-
"7 For we have been destroyed by your wrath, dismayed by your anger. 8 You have taken note of our guilty deeds, our secrets in the full light of your presence. 9 All our days pass under your wrath, our lives are over like a sigh. 10 The span of our life is seventy years -- eighty for those who are strong -- but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone."
Hello, Rami. Thank you for this. I am now in exile from Nashville, living in Auburn, AL. There are still Bible quoting festivals here where Baptists and Independents and Evangelicals would put Tibetan debaters to shame with the back and forth artillery battles of Proof Texts. My Professor of Old Testament at Sewanee, 50 plus years ago, gave me a text from the New Testament that he thought perfectly fit me and my classroom debating obsession: ACTS 9:4-5.
Later in life, since many of my academic colleagues down here had favorite texts stickers on their pick up truck bumpers or plaques on their desks, I figured I had mine.
In the KJV "Red Letter" Bible the Red is, of course, for the "Jesus Quotes". In ACTS 9 Saul has been flung to the ground by the Lord asking him "why was he, Saul, continuing to persecute him, Jesus. And Saul asks who the voice is, and the voice says, basically, "...it's, me, Jesus, and you are persecuting me (my people). Then and there in 9:5 I had my 'proof text', in Red, and meaning Jesus said it, ya'll:
"...it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks..."
I put it on a plaque and put it on my desk, and who knows if anyone ever looked it up. If I had a Holy Rascals tattoo this chapter and verse would be next to it. It has a global reference. I'm thinking of bumper stickers and ball caps. Be well, be safe, keep walking the doodle.
My favorite Bible verse is also one that requires no belief: "In God we live and move and have our being." Thank you for your tidy little summary of the paradox your drive-by evangelist so enthusiastically promoted. "...if it isn’t “me” who gets eternal life, then why is it “me” who has to believe that God so loved the world, etc., etc.?" I've said for a long time that it isn't necessary to believe in God. It's almost absurd, when you think about it. Insistence on a particular set of beliefs seems to assume that we are in charge of the ineffable Divine, and can dictate terms. Hmph! Thank you for your writing, it often makes my day.
I once had a similar experience. Since I had taken a course on the New Testament while I was in graduate school, I had become very familiar with the Gospel of Matthew. I was describing my experience when I read about the "Messianic Mystery." The verse goes something like, "... who do you say I am?" Simon bar Johan answers Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the LIving God." Reading that, I got a fabulous rush of energy up my spine to the top of my head. What was that energy? Don't know. I struck me as kundalini , but I don't think it really was considering the context.
When I was foolish enough to mention this to our maid, she excitedly told me that this was the sign that I was now a born-again Christian! (Nothing I said to her could talk her out of it.)
Anyway the moral of the story is, keep your mouth shut if you have any "religious" experiences, especially to anyone who is a fundamentalist-literalist Christian!
I think the most important today, despite its challenge, is ,"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. " Proverbs 17:22
My spiritual beliefs have changed considerably since I left religious school as a child. I HAVE read the Holy Scriptures..have a copy still. I think it's a nice story in parts but I don't believe much of it. Having dabbled in several religions even within my own Judaism, I find that I DO believe in souls and I DO believe in reincarnation and past 'lives'. I so respect your work, have read many of your books, could listen to you for hours. I just couldn't be that nice to the Honda Lady. Good for you!
Well said, as always. Thank you. I don't know that I have a favorite, but I love Isaiah 40:31. My father's gospel quartet sang a version of it and I've since created a Dance of Universal Peace using those words and that melody. To me it is a reminder to be patient with the Divine and ourselves.
We don’t believe what we believe because of the Bible; we quote what we quote because of what we believe. As I've come to expect, excellent commentary.
OMG! You’re from Tennessee??!! You surely don’t sound like it. I wandered in that wilderness for seven years of famine. People were politely cruel in ways no New Yorker would ever dream of being.
Agree...it was a culture shock for me, a new yorker, to move to Richmond, VA. A neighbor who used to 'cut' my grass always quoted the Bible..well his anyway...until I told him to stop and asked if he had any thought of his own!
Hi Rami et al.
Agewise, I'm a bit in front of you, Rami, as I am trying to get through the next 7 weeks or so to hit the big 8 0. This is so that I can truly have said in my eulogy what I have written to be said: "Ted lived to fulfil the Scriptures. Knowing he couldn't fulfil every text he has done his darndest to fulfil Ps 90, 7-10. Vs 7 8 & 9 have so far taken care of themselves and he has almost fulfilled vs 10." [Hoping to be able to change that last bit come September] :-
"7 For we have been destroyed by your wrath, dismayed by your anger. 8 You have taken note of our guilty deeds, our secrets in the full light of your presence. 9 All our days pass under your wrath, our lives are over like a sigh. 10 The span of our life is seventy years -- eighty for those who are strong -- but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone."
Hello, Rami. Thank you for this. I am now in exile from Nashville, living in Auburn, AL. There are still Bible quoting festivals here where Baptists and Independents and Evangelicals would put Tibetan debaters to shame with the back and forth artillery battles of Proof Texts. My Professor of Old Testament at Sewanee, 50 plus years ago, gave me a text from the New Testament that he thought perfectly fit me and my classroom debating obsession: ACTS 9:4-5.
Later in life, since many of my academic colleagues down here had favorite texts stickers on their pick up truck bumpers or plaques on their desks, I figured I had mine.
In the KJV "Red Letter" Bible the Red is, of course, for the "Jesus Quotes". In ACTS 9 Saul has been flung to the ground by the Lord asking him "why was he, Saul, continuing to persecute him, Jesus. And Saul asks who the voice is, and the voice says, basically, "...it's, me, Jesus, and you are persecuting me (my people). Then and there in 9:5 I had my 'proof text', in Red, and meaning Jesus said it, ya'll:
"...it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks..."
I put it on a plaque and put it on my desk, and who knows if anyone ever looked it up. If I had a Holy Rascals tattoo this chapter and verse would be next to it. It has a global reference. I'm thinking of bumper stickers and ball caps. Be well, be safe, keep walking the doodle.
Down here, and still kickin'...
chip.
My favorite Bible verse is also one that requires no belief: "In God we live and move and have our being." Thank you for your tidy little summary of the paradox your drive-by evangelist so enthusiastically promoted. "...if it isn’t “me” who gets eternal life, then why is it “me” who has to believe that God so loved the world, etc., etc.?" I've said for a long time that it isn't necessary to believe in God. It's almost absurd, when you think about it. Insistence on a particular set of beliefs seems to assume that we are in charge of the ineffable Divine, and can dictate terms. Hmph! Thank you for your writing, it often makes my day.
I once had a similar experience. Since I had taken a course on the New Testament while I was in graduate school, I had become very familiar with the Gospel of Matthew. I was describing my experience when I read about the "Messianic Mystery." The verse goes something like, "... who do you say I am?" Simon bar Johan answers Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the LIving God." Reading that, I got a fabulous rush of energy up my spine to the top of my head. What was that energy? Don't know. I struck me as kundalini , but I don't think it really was considering the context.
When I was foolish enough to mention this to our maid, she excitedly told me that this was the sign that I was now a born-again Christian! (Nothing I said to her could talk her out of it.)
Anyway the moral of the story is, keep your mouth shut if you have any "religious" experiences, especially to anyone who is a fundamentalist-literalist Christian!
I think the most important today, despite its challenge, is ,"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. " Proverbs 17:22
My spiritual beliefs have changed considerably since I left religious school as a child. I HAVE read the Holy Scriptures..have a copy still. I think it's a nice story in parts but I don't believe much of it. Having dabbled in several religions even within my own Judaism, I find that I DO believe in souls and I DO believe in reincarnation and past 'lives'. I so respect your work, have read many of your books, could listen to you for hours. I just couldn't be that nice to the Honda Lady. Good for you!
Well said, as always. Thank you. I don't know that I have a favorite, but I love Isaiah 40:31. My father's gospel quartet sang a version of it and I've since created a Dance of Universal Peace using those words and that melody. To me it is a reminder to be patient with the Divine and ourselves.
Shema of course. It encompasses everything.
You ended this PERFECTLY Rabbi! SO true! Thanks again for your insightful discourse and for your time!