My last post has struck a nerve. I suspect that the only reason that this issue is so controversial is because of the recent events surrounding the University of Sheffield. Were it not for the fact that some people were mistakenly led to the conclusion that I was criticising their university, I doubt that the issues I raised would have been so very incendiary. The issue that concerns me is the issue of religion, and its rule in academic discourse. Contrary to the conclusions of some, I was not suggesting that religious people should be limited to operating within a non-religious framework; I was simply suggesting that the university must be cognisant of the different discourses through which it operates simultaneously and, when it speaks in an official capacity, must be mindful of not priveleging any of them over any others. The following is a brief quote from the preface to the second edition of Whose Bible is it Anyway?, by Philip Davies – a scholar at the University of Sheffield:
Biblical Studies at Sheffield
16 10 2009For a while now, there has been talk of Sheffield University closing the undergraduate component to their Biblical Studies department. Word has finally got out that this is not going to happen – in any case, not just yet. John Hobbins has the official report from a representative of the undergraduate student body, that you can read on his post. In this official report, the official reporter thanks all those who prayed on behalf of the department.
The following is the comment that I wrote on John’s blog. As it is only short, I reproduce it here:
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Categories : Bible
Bereishit
16 10 2009This week is Shabbat Bereishit : the week on which the first parasha of the Torah is chanted in synagogues around the world. I would like to take a moment to comment upon the first clause of the Bible – more specifically, the first word.
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Categories : Bible, Hebrew, Jewish Tradition
Not in Heaven
13 10 2009My new post at Galus Australis deals with the difference between exegesis and eisegesis, with the example of a reappropriated Biblical quote. There are innumerable quotes that I might have chosen, but I picked this one for its non-tendentious nature. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Update: It has come out, in the last few comments, that I have been using the word “eisegesis” incorrectly. I was mistakenly under the impression that the word denoted the leading into a text, which is done by somebody who imports ideas derived elsewhere. It would seem, however, that the word has a narrower definition than that, that it specifically denotes importing ideas of one’s own construction, and that it has a mildly pejorative nuance.
If anybody is familiar with this word having been reappropriated in recent years with a more relativistic nuance (ie: that ideas might have been read into texts, but that they were derived from older oral traditions and were therefore equally valid), please do speak up – either here or on Galus Australis. It is entirely possible that I have been using the word incorrectly for years (I’ve done that often enough with others), but it would be lamentable if the only word I know to describe rabbinic hermeneutics was disparaging.
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Categories : Bible
The Illustrated
9 10 2009One of the few things that I remember about my grandfather was the fact that he did not like comic books. I remember this because, even though he died when I was six, my earliest aspiration was to be an illustrator. I used to wonder whether or not he would have enjoyed a comic book that I produced and was always certain that the medium could be more than people usually gave it credit. It’s therefore a curious fact that, with very few and scarce exceptions, I never actually spent my time reading comics. I cannot say precisely why that was, except that I may have inherited the very prejudice that I was so certain was unfounded. Comics are frivolous. Comics are lurid. Comics, by providing illustrations, promote laziness. Comics are for children; adults read books.
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Categories : Literature
Praise the Lord (of the Rings)
26 09 2009I recently acquired The Jerusalem Bible: an authorised Catholic translation of the Old Testament (including the deuterocanonical literature) and the New Testament. To the best of my knowledge, this book has been out of print since 1966. Having been criticised for its lack of attention (in some cases) to the original languages, the Bible then passed through the hands of an editorial committee and emerged as The New Jerusalem Bible in 1985. This new edition features egalitarian language and is also generally considered to be more faithful to the underlying Hebrew and Greek. Nonetheless, the 1966 edition was the one that I sought and, after struggling with Amazon’s refusal to ship it to Australia, I eventually found a copy on eBay.
At 2,000 pages, plus introductions and supplements, The Jerusalem Bible is a bit of a handful. The prose, from what I have read, is sharp and eloquent and the poetry natural to my ears. It reads less like a translation of the Bible and more like something that I am supposed to be reading in English. But I did not purchase it simply because I wanted a fresh take on an ancient book. On the contrary, observe the opening page:
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Categories : Bible, Translation
Mything the Point
5 09 2009In relation to those Biblical scholars who seem to have an allergy to the “M-word” (at least, whenever they are describing the literature that they profess to analyse), Alan Lenzi has a word or two to say by way of a comment. It’s short and sweet, but you might as well see it at his blog, rather than mine. Hear hear!
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Categories : Bible
Bibliophilia
2 09 2009In lieu of a post that requires some degree of research, many people have been asking me about my latest literary acquisitions and so I have happily chosen to divulge that information here. As you can see from the following picture, my Primary Bookshelf (which is the name that I have given to the shelf on which I keep most of my primary literature) now has an Old and Rare Books section:
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Categories : Bible, Personal Reflections
(Dis)Belief in God
17 08 2009For those of you who are inclined to weigh in on such issues, a small argument (of sorts) has developed around an article that I wrote for Galus Australis. It’s a frivolous article, but it seems to have struck a vein with a few people and, having felt obliged to defend it, I found that the ensuing argument struck a vein with me as well. All are welcome to leave opinions of their own on the thread, and I invite anybody with an interest in the issue to do so.
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Categories : Bible, Jewish Tradition
Scribal Errors
5 08 2009Having recently acquired a facsimile edition of the Aleppo Codex, I decided to do a little research on its origins and development. The first place that I chose to look was The Aleppo Codex: a website developed by the Ben-Zvi Institute of Jerusalem. The site is old news now, but certainly worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already.
I mention this because, while the English of the site is less than perfect, one particular passage is most illuminating. It is strangely fitting that it should occur in a section that describes the precise copying of the Masoretic Text, and the nature of the errors that crept in. Interested parties may access the page in question here, and scroll down to section §1.10:
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Categories : Bible
Echoes from the Ether: