Sep 8

Reference links:

Isaiah 1:1-2:22 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 Psalm 52:1-9 Proverbs 22:26-27

Overview of the Book of Isaiah Overview of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We start Isaiah today. It's been hard reading up on background on a new book everyday, but fortunately Isaiah, at 66 chapters, will last us awhile. We may even end up having to review background info!

Harris's Understanding the Bible has this to say about the composition of the book:

Although traditionally regarded as the work of a single prophet, scholars believe that the Book of Isaiah is an anthology of prophetic literature that spans almost the entire era of Israelite prophecy, from the mid-eight to the early fifth century BCE. Most scholars divide the book into three different parts, each representing a different historical period and a different author.

...

Scholars have long wondered what principle guided ancient biblical editors when they combined the work of three different prophets from three different periods of Israel's history onto a single scroll. Some recent commentators suggest that the editors wished to illustrate the entire spectrum of Israelite prophecy in a book that they placed at the head of the prophetic collection. In its edited form, the Book of Isaiah represents and incorporates the three principal themes or concerns of Israel's prophets: warnings of divine judgment, promises of forgiveness and reconciliation, and responsibilities of restoration. ... The book as a whole thus served as a pattern or model for future generations, illustrating the nature and consequences of covenant-breaking, as well as the willingness of Israel's God to save and redeem a repentant people.

Let's just cover the first part for tonight:

Most of Isaiah's genuine sayings, embedded amid later prophetic and editorial additions, express advice to Davidic kings during the Assyrian threat and warning of judgment against Judah for its sins.

Harris reminds us of the historical context of this part of Isaiah. The historical Isaiah was active during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  Assyria was powerful. They had taken over much of the region. During Isaiah's lifetime, Assyria would conquer the kingdom of Israel.


And that's probably enough for now. On to today's reading! Since it's poetry, there's a pretty low content to word ratio, but I am okay with that. ;-)

The content in the first chapter of today's reading boils down to this: the people of Israel/Judah/Jerusalem have rebelled against God. They live sinful lives and disgust God by donning the clothing of tradition without following its deeper meaning. Isaiah says that the people should:

Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.

If the people turn to God and live righteously, he will make them clean again.

The second chapter presents a vision of future judgment and world peace.

New Testament

Paul defends himself and his authority.

Psalms and Proverbs

Another proverb about not securing other people's debts.

Why is an ultimate meaning meaningful anyway?

Everyone wants their life to have meaning. That much is obvious. 

Or is it? I suspect that a lot of what people mean when they say that they want their life to have meaning is that they do not want to end up with regrets: regrets about what they did or did not do; regrets about having wasted time; regrets that they did not fulfill their potential.

The search for meaning then, is the search for ways to minimize the chance of regrets. But having found an awesome meaning, there is still the chance that you may eventually come to see it as worthless. You may realize that it is wrong. You may realize that it has no worth. You may just get tired of it.

It seems the only way to defend against this fear is to find your One True Meaning. Your absolute meaning. But one of the terrifying things about a world without God is that there is no absolute meaning. Every meaning is relative to some context: yourself, your culture, our world. 

But even if we could figure out an absolute meaning, is it really that great? Consider this thought experiment. An all knowing computer, one that can be said to have the best interests of yourself and all of humanity in mind, gives you your life's purpose. Would you suddenly be satisfied?

Personally, while I would not reject the meaning from this omniscient being, I would not accept it just because that being was omniscient. A meaning from outside of yourself is not your own meaning until you choose to internalize it and make it home. 

Now, I know some people will counter that their God is not only all knowing. Their God is loving. Their God is Love. But so what. The hypothetical meaning provided by God is still a meaning from outside of yourself.

Even for an absolute meaning, if you have to internalize it before it actually becomes, well, meaningful to you, then there is always the chance that it could lose its significance, like any meaning of your own manufacture. Yes, it might be the right meaning for you. It may be the meaning that brings you the most happiness, but really the fact that some all knowing being gave it to you does not make it any more significant than any meaning you found on your own; it just shortcuts the evaluation process. 

In short, I don't think that "all is meaningless" is necessarily a negative conclusion. It is better to acknowledge now that permanent satisfaction cannot be grasped, that even the best of meanings can become meaningless, than to have it hit you full force when that satisfaction is lost.

The meaning of meaning

I promised some thoughts on Ecclesiastes and the idea of everything being meaningless. I now present them to you.

First, let's look at the way different translations deal with what was, in the New Living Translation, communicated as "meaningless". We will take Ecclesiastes 1:2 which lays out this idea. Here's what we get from our comparisons:

• NET: "Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!
• NIV: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
• NLT: "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "utterly meaningless!"
• BBE: All is to no purpose, said the Preacher, all the ways of man are to no purpose.
• NASB: "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
• NRSV: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
• NKJV: "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
• MSG: Smoke, nothing but smoke. [[That's what the Quester says.]] There's nothing to anything--it's all smoke.

These varied translations make it clear that the idea being conveyed in the Hebrew is more complicated any of those words convey. There are subtleties of meaning. All of the aspects above are, so it would seem, present, but none of them alone captures the essence. That same page also has this translation footnote (passage references removed for brevity):

The noun הֶבֶל is the key word in Ecclesiastes. The root is used in two ways in the OT, literally and figuratively. The literal, concrete sense is used in reference to the wind, man’s transitory breath, evanescent vapor. In this sense, it is often a synonym for “breath” or “wind”. The literal sense lent itself to metaphorical senses: (1) breath/vapor/wind is nonphysical, evanescent, and lacks concrete substance thus, the connotation “unsubstantial”, “profitless” or “fruitless”, “worthless”, “pointless”, “futile”, (2) breath/vapor/wind is transitory and fleeting – thus, the connotation “fleeting” or “transitory” and (3) breath/vapor/wind cannot be seen thus, the idea of “obscure,” “dark,” “difficult to understand,” “enigmatic”.

I bring this up to point out that, while "meaningless" is a perfectly acceptable translation, it seems to me the author is really trying to emphasize that everything is impermanent. The world is ever changing. Everything you work for in this world will someday be gone. It is futile to grasp it, to try to hold it in place.

Another aspect of this is that the world is uncertain. The future, like the wind, cannot be controlled. Attempts to control the future will result in failure and unhappiness. We do not know which way the wind will blow, so we should not make plans that depend on it behaving in the way we wish.

So where does that leave us. Everything is transitory, uncertain, changing, you could even say meaningless (in so far as meaning implies some sort of absoluteness and stability). But joy can still be found in the present moment. There is joy in what life is even if that is disappearing even as you enjoy it. But that joy comes from seeing things as they are, not as they could be.

When looked at this way, the message of Ecclesiastes is no longer that life is meaningless, in the sense that there it has no value and is not worth living. Instead, the message is much more akin to Buddhist ideas of impermanence and mindfulness. While still not satisfying to those who want their lives to have some sort of fixed cosmic meaning, this interpretation of Ecclesiastes presents its message as liberating rather than depressing.

Sep 7

Reference links:

Song of Songs 5:1-8:14 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 Psalm 51:1-19 Proverbs 22:24-25

Overview of Song of Songs Overview of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We finish Song of Songs today. We read more descriptions of love and descriptions of the lovers. Some of this is quite overtly sexual.

One line that stood out to me was this:

But my vineyard is mine to give

Given the context of the line and the subject of the poem as a whole, this line seems like a clear declaration that women have the freedom to choose their love. That choice is not to be made lightly

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem,
not to awaken love until the time is right.

But the love and sexuality of a woman are her property. This is a welcome counter to those who would claim that women cannot be trusted with their own sexuality.

New Testament

Paul continues to encourage the Corinthian church to give money to the church in Jerusalem. What makes that church so much more needy, I wonder. Paul then goes on to talk about how giving generously results in a greater harvest than giving less. I certainly can get behind the concept.

Psalms and Proverbs

This proverb struck a cord. There have certainly been people I have cut out of my life because, despite my best efforts, they consistently brought out the worst in me.

Don’t befriend angry people
or associate with hot-tempered people,
or you will learn to be like them
and endanger your soul.

Sep 6

Reference links:

Song of Songs 1:1-4:16 2 Corinthians 8:16-24 Psalm 50:1-23 Proverbs 22:22-23

Overview of Song of Songs Overview of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

New book means summary day! According to Harris's Understanding the Bible

The only erotic poetry in the Bible, the Song of Songs defies easy classification or interpretations.  Its frank celebration of sexual passion challenges interprets to explain the book's presence in sacred Scripture. Puzzled or embarrassed by the poet's joyous reveling in physical sensuality, many commentators have labeled the work an allegory -- a fictional narrative in which characters, objects, and actions symbolize some higher truth. To Jews, the Song became an allegory of Yahweh's love for Israel; to Christians, it became an expression of Christs's love for his "bride," the church. But to most modern scholars, this collection of love lyrics is precisely what it appears to be: an affirmation of the human capacity for sexual pleasure.

That ancient commentators, both Jewish and Christian, regarded the book as functioning allegorically, however, suggests that the poem's eroticism may have a spiritual dimension.

In short, even if the author of the poem did not mean it allegorically, it has taken on allegorical aspects in practice.

Despite the traditional attribution of the books to Solomon,

Solomon, nonetheless, is not thought to be the author. Some scholars believe that these erotic poems originated as hymns associated with a Near Eastern fertility goddess, such as Asherah, who was married to the god El (in Ugaritic lore) or Baal (in Canaanite tradition). If so, the Asherah-El-Baal cultic elements have entirely disappeared from the extant texts. Other scholars propose that these verses were intended to be sung at country weddings in ancient Israel.

On to the reading! I don't have a ton to say about it. The Song of Songs is very much romantic/erotic poetry. Lot's of lovely poetic imagery, although some of it is less meaningful to the modern audience (such as comparing white teeth to sheep). Given that I am not reading it as an analogy, more something to be enjoyed and commented upon.

New Testament

Today's reading seems to be Paul's attempt to convince the Corinthian church that they can trust all the money they donate to the people he is sending.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today's message from Proverbs: don't rob the poor or exploit the needy. Always a good point to make.