Biblical Revelations

I read the bible not as any devout Christian would imagine. Matter of fact, it seems that the bible is not as much the cornerstone of any Quaker any more, even more so the old belief that it will unite mankind.

There are enough myriad intepretations of its text interspersed with many contradictions that no two Christians of different sects, let us say Presbyterian and Catholic, can totally agree on its literal meaning.

I read the Bible mostly with scholarly eyes, much like philosophy, history, literature and occasionally for the divine messages and mythology. It is after all a text filled with many literary forms such as prose, poetry, hymns of praise, parables (story-telling) and my favourites, skewedly, fall under the deuterocanonicals (the deemed hidden, secret or subsidiary books).

Here the books of wisdom impart nuggets of truth while the books of prophets continue to fascinate me with their wildest of wild imagination of Armageddon. Not unlike Genesis, with both history and mythology rolled into one.

The Old Testament "Ecclesiastes" is philosophical musings while Deuterocanonicals "Sirach" (Ecclesiasticus) speaks of religious and moral tenets.

Some favourite quotes from the two books include these :

"It is better to have wise people reprimand you than to have stupid people sing your praises."

"I found something more bitter than death - woman. No troubles are as serious as the troubles that women cause."

"Stupid people are given postions of authority. Slaves ride on horsebacks while noblemen go on foot."

"People deserving praise - a person who doesn't have to work for someone less competent than himself."

The book of Genesis describes the mythological creation of the world in six days. The period of six days, according to scientists, may not be the 24-hour days we are now acclimatised to. And I think this holds water.

The Garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge, with biblical Eve, on the urging of the serpent, taking the first bite and then nudging Adam into Sin with the next bite, are in line with Catholics' vows of celibacy for the priests and observations of the wicked, mindless and sexed-up rituals of the high priestesses in the temples at the time (much like brothels for the pagans and heathens) . This is how I read this.

Now , of course, a contextual approach is urged upon reading the Bible. And this is definitely a must in the light of the era they were written, the social and religious microcosm then, the writers/translators themselves and the original language (Hebrew, then Greek) it is written in before being translated into Latin, English and German (Martin Luther transposed his in German) which may have lost its flavour in both meaning and nuances of words then and now.

Remember my earlier blogs on linguistics on words like "degenerate", "counterfeit" and "apocryphal" and you get to fathom the semantics progression over time.

Erich von Daniken wrote about some biblical D-day as well in his book "Chariots of Gods". This is further vouched by the Books of the prophets like Ezekiel, the Old Testament of the Exodus and Genesis and that of the New Testament.

The walls of Jericho (also one of the earliest model of city living some 11 000 BC ago) come tumbling down (a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and wars), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (the pillar of salt Lot's wife turned into could be a nuclear fall-out) and the Tower of Babylon , Gods riding on chariots and heavenly apparitions appearing across the skies (Books of relevation and most books of the prophets) are all signature tunes of Judgement Day and the return of the Messiah.

The prophetic books include female prophetesses like Ruth, Esther and Susanna. Ezekiel warns of false prophets and prophetesses of our times. So too did Jesus in the New testament. I think this clearly signals the cults we have come to know in our period.

In a particular passage of the Book of Revelation on the day of the coming of the Kingdom of God, it says that standing on Mount Zion were 144000 men who "are the only ones who have been redeemed" and "they are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They have never been known to tell lies; they are faultless."

The bible traces history quite well, juxtaposing the lives of the early Jews with that of Egyptian civilisation 2000 BC ago , first with Joseph, son of Jacob, being sold into slavery and later, Moses leading God's Chosen people to the promised land.

The Song of Songs and Psalms are all well-written prose and poetry, the latter mainly hymns of praises by King David. The book of Job is similarly penned albeit as lamentations.

Don't forget Jesus' parables and you have a compendium of such diverse literary forms and history that surely the Bible counts its rightful place among the books of knowledge of all times.

Jesus' parables. Ah yes! Simple, short but wise. They contain Jesus' philosophy on living and loving. He preaches on love, anger, poverty, riches, charity and hypocrisy.

Jesus himself has come to be known in the Bible to have a shrewd understanding of human nature and he puts the need for parables thus:

"They may look, yet not see. They may listen, yet not understand. Their minds are dull, having stopped up their ears and closed their eyes" This reminds me of adopting a phenomenalistic approach to education besides cognition.

Homosexuality exists in bliblical times. So too do incest, rape, divorce and murder.

On divorce, he says "Man must not separate then what God has joined together." But this was an obvious affront to Moses' earlier decree that this was possible and even in some of the other books of wisdom (Sirach: "Don't let a bad wife have her way,if she won't do as you tell her, divorce her") .

Thus the contradictions in the bible.

From the divorce laws and on the temptatious testing of the pharisees, Jesus observes that the law does not apply to certain men : "There are different reasons why men cannot marry. Some, because they are born that way, others because men made them that way and still others for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." This is open to many interpretations but one of which must be homosexuality (my take anyway and surely the last must be the vows of celibacy for religiousness).

And that soft spot for children when he blessed them as the inheritors of the Kingdom of God by virtue of their humility, innocence and purity.

Which is something I can sincerely believe in. Children are "blank slates" in some sort of way, far removed from the prejudices and many of the phobias of us as adults. It is we, the adults, who pump ideas into them on racism, prejudices, skewed values, beliefs, fears and stereotyping.

Remember our age-old threats of the men in blue, the bogeymen, the odorous Indians, the danger of strangers, fatsos and falling off the precipice of the cliffs when we attempt adventure and you can see how contention germinates and grows.

Left on their own, I think they may pick dolls for play , pink as a color of choice, arts as a career, sports for life or live a life away from home , without our selective pressures and societal demands. Or they miscegenate, love other men and live as naturists or naturalists.

Of course cultural and social influences chip just as badly at their psyche too.

Finally, the Bible is also a source of support for the Glory of God in Nature and History. The Glory of God in nature will form another musing of mine in another blog anytime soon. The gift of nature to mankind.