Our first assignment in Intro to New Testament at the Boston University School of Theology was to read the Gospel According to Mark three times before coming to class.  Dr. Sampley wanted us to be able to recognize the "voice" of Mark... what were Mark's favorite words (euthus! immediately! ;)  )  and themes?  

Of course, "immediately" stood out.....immediately. But what also stood out was that, well, there's really no nice way to say this... The disciples were a bunch of dunderheads.  They're not portrayed as particularly bright in any of the Gospels, but in Mark they are just plain thick headed. 

You've probably noticed this already. They hang out with Jesus. see him do amazing things-- and even the evil spirits know who he is, but the disciples keep asking "who is this that even the storms obey??"  This morning we read that Jesus tells them a third time what will happen to him in Jerusalem... and still James and John want to share in his glory. Uh, guys...were you listening at all?

So what's up with the disciples? Plenty of theories here. One is that their limitations are meant to encourage us... if Jesus could use these holy bozos, he can probably do something with us, too! Another theory is based on genre. A number of scholars of Ancient Greek literature have noted that Mark is written in much the way Ancient Greek novel would have been written-- it's not great literature... more of a pop-culture genre than Tolstoy, a soap opera rather than Masterpiece Theater...  The reason being if you want to share good news, with as many people as possible, use a genre that many people will engage, rather than a genre that appeals to only a few.  And in the genre of the Ancient Greek novel, the traveling sage has a bunch of followers who are, well, not so bright... enter in the disciples...

So, if you're noticing that the disciples are rather clueless... you're in really good company.  And if ever we feel like we're clueless, or do silly things while trying to follow Jesus, we're in good company!

Susan Lingner asked a really good question-- about how God appears in the Old Testament. She asks, "It seems to happen often, but I can't justify to myself why God would kill so many "innocent" people. In Exodus, God sends all the plaques, and while it affects those in command, it's the innocent people who are losing their lifes to make God's point. One example would be the slaves sent out to the fields when the hailstorm was predicted.  The slaves had no knowledge, or if they did know, they had no choice, but to go into the fields where they would die.  Why would the slaves be "lesser" beings in the eyes of God?  That is just one example, but it seems to happen often - almost like God is setting up some of the people to fail just to prove a point."

 

 

The Jewish faith seeks to address this matter of how God seems arbitrary, or unfair, in the Passover Haggadah, when the angels celebrate at the Egyptians' deaths, and God excoriates them and tells them not to laugh at the death of his children-- the Egyptians being God's children, too...

 

One take on what seems like a contradiction between a God of Love and a God that seems cruel, who seems to endorse or even demand genocide, among other things (we'll get to those bits soon...) is that it's not the nature of God, but the nature of the people seeking to write about God, that we are seeing in these passages. My Hebrew Bible prof Kathe Darr would remind us over and over that the Hebrew Bible was written by a people who were "theocentric and ethnocentristic, who lived on a tiny fertile strip of land in between larger military powers who were ever fighting against each other, or otherwise coveting that strip of land..." ie, everything that happened happened because of God, and because the Children of Israel were a chosen people.  They were a people who needed their God to be a mighty and ruthless warrior who would fight on their behalf, and so that's how God is depicted in these parts of the Hebrew Scripture, because that is how they perceived God.

 

This theory would suggest that yes, scripture is holy, and speaks truths, but some of what is in the Bible is not to be taken as  fact, and is more representative of the people in relationship with God than the God in relationship with people. God didn't want genocide, or the death of innocents, but the authors/compilers needed to believe that about God, so that was how God was portrayed in those stories.

  

Another take on this difficult subject is that while it broke God's heart to have innocents suffer the plagues, or the genocides, it was essential to God's plan in salvation through Jesus that Israel be a nation set apart, and so all the difficult things that happen were necessary.  This allows us to hold the painful and cruel things in tension with a God who still loves, but is heartbroken over the death of innocents, as a sort of collateral damage.

 

It's a bit of a conundrum.  I'll admit that I lean more toward the first theory. While the Holy Spirit is clearly present in scripture, sometimes, it seems to me, so is flawed humanity.  We see how different gospel writers saw Jesus differently... how context shapes understanding.  So I don't put it past those Priestly redactors, and other Hebrew Bible authors, either.  But that's just me, and my imperfect and human wrestling with this difficult matter.  Each of us may come to our own conclusions.

  

 

Speaking about those Priestly Redactor brings to mind all those laws we're reading through... and another place to explore translation... Namely, what's with that word, "abomination"?  In the last several years, there's been quite a bit of scholarship around how this word is translated in scripture-- again, starting with to the translators of the King James Bible, and how that has influenced later translation.  The word in Hebrew that is translated "abomination" in Leviticus is toevah. It occurs 103 times in the Hebrew Bible, and  and it's translated differently throughout other parts of the Hebrew Bible (and in other translations), but in context is almost always referring to cultic taboo.  "Taboo" as it's used in our modern English, is more accurate than the meaning "abomination" has come to have in our modern usage.  "Abomination" has come to mean something that should just not exist on the face of the earth, whereas toevah, as it appears throughout much the Hebrew Bible (especially in Ezekiel, and other prophets), has so much more to do with a forbidden cultic practice, engaged by other nations worshiping their gods, and so should not be engaged by those seeking to be the ritually pure chosen people.   In Proverbs, toevah is used in reference to ethics-- but this is the minority usage.

  

So again, when you're reading along in Leviticus and come across, "abomination," think, "cultic taboo practiced by those other nations who we're fighting in order to take over the land of milk and honey, because we're to be set apart by God for great things."

Misplaced sodomites... (bet you never thought you would see that in an email from me...) I apologize... I jumped the gun in my last email... This translation by the King James team shows up the first time in Deuteronomy... which is just around the corner, after we read Numbers... and not in Leviticus. So just hold on to that "temple prostitute" riff for a few more weeks, while we spend some time reading the census in Numbers. Those of you reading the Good News, NIV or other contemporary translations will know the temple prostitutes when you see them. So to speak.  If any are reading the Wycliff translation, and I'm guessing none are... but just in case... instead you'll encounter a "strumpet" and a "lecher," also colorful translations, but similarly missing out on the cultic purity element that was the concern of the Priestly authors and redactors. Again, (when we get there...) it's helpful to keep in mind the context: namely, a dominant priority and focus on ritual purity, being a holy people, set apart from all those other nations, who do all those taboo things in worship of their lesser gods.

 

 

All of which makes me so grateful that we get to spend time in the Gospels while making this journey through Leviticus. We read of Jesus and his disciples being criticized by Pharisees and others for breaking the sabbath, and for breaking other purity laws. Reading Leviticus and noting how many of these laws are punishable by death, and then seeing Jesus and his followers accused of breaking some of those laws-- well, it puts things in perspective, and really highlights how radical Jesus must have seemed to some of the religious leaders of his day. Jesus let a bleeding woman touch him, touched the sick, and healed them... which, according to the laws we've been reading in Leviticus, would have made Jesus unclean...

 

We hear over and over while reading Leviticus that all these laws are to be followed in order to help these people be God's people. Jesus, coming here to be one of us, wholly human and wholly divine, invites us to be God's people through a relationship with him. What a tremendous gift!

 

And it's a gift to be on this journey with you!

 

Thank you for participating in the Bible Challenge.

 

Paige+