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Bible Questions and Spiritual Discussion
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Leviticus
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Brian observed that Leviticus is often the book of the Bible
when people stop reading the Bible all together.
To which I can say,
"Yes, been there, done that!"
The ONLY reason I can stick with it
is because I see all of this - the blood, the sacrifices, the violence -
as reflections of the culture in which they were written
and as a part of a "faith in progress."
I do disagree with Brian's interpretation of the sacrificial system, however.
He relates it to the story of God's clothing of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
But that requires two things.
First, we have to accept the story of the Garden as literal history,
something very few Biblical scholars do today.
Every religious tradition has a creation story,
a metaphorical attempt to answer the basic questions of who we are and why we're here.
Genesis fills that role in the Jewish tradition.
Second, even if taken literally,
there is no mention here of blood, or of killing an animal.
Perhaps the animal had already died!
I'm very familiar with the "scarlet thread" supposedly running through the Bible,
but that's a human interpretation with which I don't happen to agree.
No, I agree with William Barclay, hardly a "raving liberal"
but a very mainstream scholar whose Daily Study Bible commentaries
have helped many a preacher in our sermon writing,
who says this in his discussion of the first chapter of John:
"God has always been like Jesus...
"We may well ask,
'What then about some of the things that we read in the Old Testament?
What about the passages that speak about commandments of God
to wipe out whole cities and to destroy men, women and children?
What about the anger and the destructiveness and the jealousy of God
that we sometimes read of in the older parts of Scripture?'
The answer is this - it is not God who has changed;
it is men's knowledge of him that has changed.
Men wrote these things because they did not know any better;
that was the stage which their knowledge of God had reached...
It was only when Jesus came that they saw fully and completely
what God has always been like."
(The Daily Study Bible Series:The Gospel of John, Vol. 1, p. 38)
I read - or listen to Brian read -
the book of Leviticus and other Old Testament books,
not because of their direct relevance for today
but as books describing faltering, imperfect steps of human beings
as they strive to seek and to serve the One God
who never stops seeking to be known by Creation.
So, I'm not going to quit!
Keep reading, Brian;
and I - though sometimes through gritted teeth - will keep listening!
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Lanny Carlson 02/16/2012 17:14 |
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John T
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02/16/2012 19:22 |
You're not going to begin erasing Adam and Even now are you? This is history, it's the story of God creating us - Christ is even called "The Last Adam" - how could he be called the last one if there wasn't a first. See the genealogies - they go all the way from Christ back to the Son of Adam, the Son of God!
Read it, it's pretty clear.
Your generality that everyone disregards Genesis is quite false. There are those that do, but there are a great number that do not erase Genesis from their Bible's.
It is His story. Not yours, you can choose to ignore it, but the truth remains.
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John T
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02/16/2012 19:47 |
I'm sorry Lanny, I guess I shouldn't be so hard. I just cringe at these things. It feels like you're taking out all the core articles of faith of Christianity. You say that Christ is not the Son of God, that he's just a mere man. You say that we're not in a battle of good vs. evil, that Satan doesn't exist. You say that God didn't create man, beginning with Adam and his wife Eve, and that that Noah didn't exist and didn't build an ark to escape from a worldwide flood. The Bible shows these things in so many ways, they are referred to by Paul in the new testament. Any plain reading of the Bible shows these things - and only when you begin to twist and turn everything around can one begin to believe differently. The Bible is not meant to be a puzzle that cannot be understood. It is God's word, the Word that became flesh and dwelt amount us - Christ our Lord! Please don't degrade this to a storybook. We listen to the words every day. This is the truth of God being spoken into our lives. That's why I get upset when you tear it apart.
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