The Bible as Literature

Latest Episodes:

The Meaning of Terms Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul explains the functional meaning of the term holocaust, deferring to the original Semitic and consonantal Hebrew text, noting both the utility and shortcomings of the Septuagint. (Episode 289)

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God Does Not Speak English Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

A listener wrote us this week to share a passage from Letter 57 of Jerome that captures (with respect to the terrorism of translations) what we said recently about Semitic languages in opposition to Hellenism and what we explain in today’s episode about Semiticized Greek in opposition to imperial Latin:

“Time would fail me were I to unfold the testimonies of all who have translated only according to the sense. It is sufficient for the present to name Hilary the confessor who has turned some homilies on Job and several treatises on the Psalms from Greek into Latin; yet has not bound himself to the drowsiness of the letter or fettered himself by the stale literalism of inadequate culture. Like a conqueror, he has led away captive into his own tongue the meaning of his originals.”

“Like a conqueror, he has led away captive into his own tongue the meaning of his originals.”

The spoken language of a people reflects a practical reality, meaning the way things work in daily life out of what God himself forms in the womb. Spoken language is not manufactured; it is found.

In Semitic languages, this is especially powerful because of the phenomenon of the triliteral root. The special value of a sacred written text, specifically the consonantal Hebrew of the Bible and the Arabic Quran, is that the practical reality of its language at the time of its writing is fixed. To the extent that the biblical text itself concocts its scriptural Hebrew as “a cross of the different (extant) Semitic languages,” it is not so much the Hebrew language as it is the Semitic language of God encoded in the Bible. In other words, the Bible, and ultimately, even the New Testament, is written in God’s Semitic debarim. Combined with the living tradition of spoken Arabic, whose functionality is preserved in the fixed text of the Quran, this fact makes the everyday spoken Arabic of simple people of more value in the study of consonantal biblical Hebrew than the most expensive theological degrees from the fanciest schools. If you do not believe me, just listen to a secular teacher of Arabic from the land—as Jerome said, “led away captive,” explain lexicology and grammar as she teaches Arabic. Even if she is not interested in the Bible or the Quran, she cannot help but teach the Bible and the Quran more effectively than modern religious scholars because of what is found in the etymology of the language, which is itself sacred.

“Translation,” Robert Carrol explains, is a “transformation” that “wrenches the text from its home in the ancient cultures and languages, deports that text, and exiles it in foreign languages and cultures.”

Richard and I discuss Luke 4:16-19. (Episode 496)

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Music and War Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul notes the diabolical link between the bards and troubadours, those who go from town to town, building the stories of cities, playing music on instruments of bronze and iron, in Scripture, the things that make for war. (Episode 288)

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Abjad Languages Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

In his 1990 article, “Fundamentals of Grammatology,” Peter T. Daniels proposed the Arabic term “abjad” to describe a type of Semitic script “that denotes individual consonants only.” Such languages force the reader to infer vowel sounds as they read the text.

The term abjad is derived from the original (pre-Islamic) order of the first four letters of the Arabic alphabet (ʾalif, bāʾ, jīm, dāl), which correspond to other Semitic languages, notably, “Hebrew and Semitic proto-alphabets: specifically, aleph, bet, gimel, and dalet.”

For most, when discussing the Hebrew text of the Bible, the Masoretic text is an assumed reference point. However, insofar as the Masoretic was vocalized by someone else, its fidelity to the original is as much an interpretation as any English translation.

The answer is not a better translation. The solution—rather, the challenge—is for modern disciples of the Bible to submit to the original, unvocalized Hebrew text. This means learning to read Hebrew texts without vowels in the same way that modern Arabs read the morning newspaper, which is printed without vowels.

Only then will students of the Bible be liberated from the tyranny of the tower builders of Genesis 11, who impose control through their interpretations, part and parcel of their imperial languages.

Richard and I discuss Luke 4:14-15. (Episode 495)

Wikipedia contributors. “Abjad.” *Wikipedia*, July 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad#cite_note-4.; Daniels, Peter T. "Fundamentals of Grammatology." *Journal of the American Oriental Society*, 1990, https://doi.org/602899. Accessed 18 Aug. 2023, pp. 727-731.

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Do Not Pray Aug 15, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, Fr. Paul reiterates difficult words that few acknowledge. Plain words, even when rendered by translators: “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me; for I do not hear you.” Jeremiah 7:16 (Episode 287)

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Jesus Says, "No!" Aug 10, 2023

Show notes

Christians love to talk about glory and victory because we are all Roman imperialists in our secret hearts—in the thoughts that we imagine God cannot hear. We lust after victory. We want to conquer and control. We are the colonial occupiers. We plan and strategize on how to spread our dung piles around. What is especially ugly about our brand of empire is that we do it in the name of the one who was hung in shame, naked on the Cross—the preferred implement of imperial terror in late antiquity.

As such, the storyline of the New Testament is a rejection of both us and Roman imperialism. Jesus rejects all of it, which is not good news for you and me. In Luke 4, the Devil, who avails himself of a kairos under the purview of God the Father, offers it to Jesus, and Jesus says, “No.”
Jesus rejects it. He says no to victory, no to glory, no to achieving heights, no to standing out, no to self-importance. No to all of it. No to everything that we strive for and treasure. Listen carefully to what I’m saying. No, to triumph and no triumphalism. All the things that we love to chant about. Yes, those ugly Roman things that Julias put on a pedestal after he crossed the Rubicon. Jesus says, “No!”

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 4:13 (Episode 494)

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Right in the Eyes of the Lord Aug 08, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, Fr. Paul highlights the stark dissonance between what humans perceive as right and what is deemed right in the eyes of the Scriptural God. (Episode 286)

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The Most High is Your Dwelling Aug 03, 2023

Show notes

In Luke 4, it is striking that the text refers to the opponent of Jesus, not as Satan, the “obstacle” or “roadblock” of the gospel, but as the deceiver, the Devil. It’s easy to dismiss this as poetic license or other such nonsense, but that is the point in the discussion when your English teacher (if she was worth her salt) would have dismissed you as lazy.

The Devil is not trying to block Jesus. He is trying to help him evolve into something greater. He wants to help Jesus achieve that for which every human being pines. He wants Jesus to grasp equality with God; achieve heights; seize power; to attain glory. So he tells Jesus a lie:
It is not Elohim who provides shelter for you, but you who shelters him.

Luckily, Jesus is not a member of your Parish Council. Nor does he host symposiums on Temple growth, development, and expansion. He just places his trust in “the shelter of the Most High,” abiding “in the shadow of the Almighty,” Elohim, the only God whom he trusts.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 4:9-12 (Episode 493)

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Love Those Shiny Buttons Aug 01, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul highlights the presence of the teraphim, hidden in plain sight on Aaron’s vestments, daftly woven by Scripture as a test for those of us who love shiny buttons. (Episode 285)

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The Colonial Plague Jul 27, 2023

Show notes

Everyone’s shit stinks. To your “civilized” ears, this sounds like a high-minded critique. It’s not. It’s just an observation about mammalian life.
All animal life makes dung piles, yes. But eventually, the wind blows, rain falls, and our dung piles disappear. It may stink for a bit, but sooner or later, it is gone, and the place thereof knows it no more. As all farmers know, our dung fertilizes the ground as God intended, and something beautiful grows in its place, for example, the lilies of the field Matthew’s Gospel.

But in the storyline of Luke, the “kingdoms of the world,” cut from stone by Solomon’s hand, are glorious up the earth and impressive to your “civilized” eyes but obnoxious in God’s.

Yes, everyone’s shit does stink. But what really smells is the campaign to make something impressive out of your dung pile. To scale it. To build it up. To spread it around. To impose it on others. Such is the plague of Alexander the Great, Julias Caesar, and their colonial heirs, who love making something out of nothing and saying, “Look what I built.”

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 4:5-8 (Episode 492)

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