Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tomorrow
I won't be able to attend tomorrow's class. My wife is having some serious medical difficulty and I would like to be with her at the doctor. Her appointment is at 9:50 a.m. Keep us in your thoughts if you don't mind.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Justice and Wisdom
Meant to post this last week, but I kinda forgot about it after saving it as a draft, anyway, here it is.
A British depiction of Lady Justice.
Statue outside the courthouse in Memphis, TN.
It should not be surprising that both Justice and Wisdom are given a female persona. The Egyptian concept of Ma'at was personified as a woman, and in Greek, Etrustcan, and later Roman mythology Wisdom is uniformly female. In ancient Greece, as i'm sure many of you are aware, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, and she is seen as independent of any male influence, given her lack of a husband or consort. Minerva was the Roman equivalent, and she likely derives her name from the Etruscan "Minrva," as the latin "mens," means mind. The Roman Minerva seems to be a merging of Athena and this Etruscan goddess.
Justice, likewise, has long held a female persona.
A British depiction of Lady Justice.
Statue outside the courthouse in Memphis, TN.
It should not be surprising that both Justice and Wisdom are given a female persona. The Egyptian concept of Ma'at was personified as a woman, and in Greek, Etrustcan, and later Roman mythology Wisdom is uniformly female. In ancient Greece, as i'm sure many of you are aware, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, and she is seen as independent of any male influence, given her lack of a husband or consort. Minerva was the Roman equivalent, and she likely derives her name from the Etruscan "Minrva," as the latin "mens," means mind. The Roman Minerva seems to be a merging of Athena and this Etruscan goddess.
Justice, likewise, has long held a female persona.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Judith Pictures
I agree. I love the way the two women look as if they are doing normal every day things. I also love that the women are not stick figure barbies. As a heavy set woman, myself, I love that the artist portrays her as having a thick body and curves. In today's society she would have been painted as a stick figure Barby.
paintings
thank you, candace, for posting those paintings! i love the one with the head in the basket because it looks like 2 women just doing daily chores and chit chatting and then there's that head!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Judith Paintings
Here are some examples of artwork inspired by Judith. The top three were all painted by Artemisia Gentileschi, a pretty interesting character herself. On the bottom, the left artist is Michelangelo Caravaggio and the one to the right is Gustav Klimt.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
god and gender
On making us in his own likeness (as Pratik quotes)--
Of course, I read the creation story metaphorically, but if I were to read it literally, I don't see why we need to take the word "likeness" to mean "likeness in physical body". Even taken literally, the word is ambiguous because it doesn't follow with the kind of likeness.
Of course, I read the creation story metaphorically, but if I were to read it literally, I don't see why we need to take the word "likeness" to mean "likeness in physical body". Even taken literally, the word is ambiguous because it doesn't follow with the kind of likeness.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
~ Monday class: Idolatry ~
I can understand when Candace says, "How can God be standing there?" God is invisible, shapeless, formless... He is the ultimate power! I agree with Dr Atkinson whether: "Can God be gendered? Can Wisdom be gendered?"
Ok, it is easy for me to see God in human form because that's how I've seen Him ever since. But Genesis 5:1 (Pg 15) claims God in the form of man:
"On the day when God created human beings he made them in his own likeness."
We look like humans, we look like God, God looks like us... So, doesn't God look like a human being then?!!
Ok, it is easy for me to see God in human form because that's how I've seen Him ever since. But Genesis 5:1 (Pg 15) claims God in the form of man:
"On the day when God created human beings he made them in his own likeness."
We look like humans, we look like God, God looks like us... So, doesn't God look like a human being then?!!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Women
I noticed an interesting thing while reading The Wisdom of Solomon. We have discussed before that (and it is very prominent in the section this section) that Wisdom is feminine. In Ch 1 Justice is also female "will justice overlook him when she passes sentence(1.8)" but death is male "the godless by their deeds and words have asked death for his company. Thinking him their friend and pining for him . . . (1.16)." It is interesting to me that the compilers of the bible are so set on making women out to be sinful and beneath men but then they attribute good and positive things to being female and bad or negative things as male. Gender labeling things this way is probably another reason why this section was left out of the mainstream readings.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Responses to Anna Beth and Elliot; Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte and Astrological Parallelism in Job and Lamentations
The reason that there aren't any references to women in the wisdom literature, aside from the vague passage in Proverbs 8, may be due to the fact that the authors were writing for an audience of men. This is also probably why there are numerous warnings about promiscuous women. Keeping in mind the misogynistic attitudes of the time period, few women were allowed to become literate, hence any writing that was done, was most likely intended exclusively for men. I'm certainly not advocating this practice, but it does make some sense of the lack of femininity.
In both these sections of our reading i found it interesting that a bear, lion, and hunter are mentioned together.
Job 38: 31 Can you bind the chains of the Plei'ades, or loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the Maz'zaroth2 in their season, or can you guide the Bear1 with its children? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's3 dominion over the earth?...
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens 38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? 39 "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions 40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?
1) or Leo
2) alternate translations include morning star and zodiac
3) or their
Lamentations 3: 10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding; 11 he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 12 he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow. 13 He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver;
Bold=My Emphasis
These references are interesting because they seem to relate to astrology, which many Christians have come to view as an evil perversion of the hebrew zodiac, or Maz'zaroth. Also, neither the bear nor the lion are native to the Levant. This would lead me to believe that these actually are astrological references and not the author speaking extemporaneously. Further evidence of this is the equation of bear and lion in both passages.
The Job reference is quite obviously a bit of astrology, as it begins with the Pleiades, or 7 Sisters. This may also be where the theme of 7's originates. If one takes the "morning star" translation of the Job passage, this could be a reference to the Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte/et al. goddess, who were represented by the planet Venus. It is notable that Astarte was both the sister and consort (or according to some sources wife) of the Syro-Palestinian deity El. Also if one replaces "God's" with "their," as per the footnote, we have another reference to the curious Elohim. This makes it more likely that the speaker here is El as opposed to Yahweh, though the two had been somewhat merged by this point.
Another interpretation of the "their" footnote is that the pronoun is refering to the Maz'zaroth, or Semitic Zodiac. This would then be a very strange verse if it attributed power over the earth to the Zodiac. If this is to be the interpretation, the Lamentations passage could also be construed as meaning that these negative events happened due to some astrological alignment. I doubt there is any way to prove that for certain, but it is an interesting viewpoint from which to look at other seemingly odd sections.
It is also interesting that El equates himself with the astrological sign of Aquarius when he says "Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens." As the sign of aquarius is a man pouring out a jar of water. This may sound like a stretch, but given a series of previous anecdotes, I believe it makes sense. For more info about the Great Year and Great Months, or Ages, click here. First off there is the golden calf incident that occured at the earliest 2200-1800 BCE. This was around the end of the Age of Taurus(ca 4300-2150 BCE). After the Age of Taurus, we have the Age of Aires(ca 2150BCE-1CE). As you probably already know, Aires is represented as a ram.. During this period the blowing of the shofar, or Ram's horn, was involved in many a religious ceremony in Judaism. The horn of any animal can be used as long as it is not of a bovine, because of the golden calf incident. Also interesting are the variants of El, including El-Eyal and El-Ayil. Ayil and Eyal are related words in hebrew, the latter means "power" and the former means "ram." Then comes the Age of Pisces(ca 1CE-2150CE) represented by two fish. There is plenty of fish (the sign of pisces) imagery connected with Jesus, i.e. the two fisherman brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, the feeding of the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, Mat. 4:19 "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," etc... Furthermore, when asked (indirectly) about his return Jesus says "And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; (Mark 14:13, Luke 22:11). Given all of this, and that the apocolyptic visions of Enoch, Daniel, and Revelation sound much more like the despotic El/Yahweh deity than the pacifistic Christ, I believe it is safe to assume that the apocolypse, or second coming, is merely a reference to the passing of the Age of Pisces and the coming Age of Aquarius.
As the Zodiac was most likely developed in Babylonia, it should not be surprising that it has quite a heavy influence on the local Levantine mythologies that conglomerated to form what is now the Judeo-Christian tradition. Also, many different cultures have mythologies that are heavily influenced by the zodiac. These seem to originate independently in different cultures as well, as Chinese, Mayan, and Near Eastern zodiacs all appear to have developed regardless of contact with each other.
In both these sections of our reading i found it interesting that a bear, lion, and hunter are mentioned together.
Job 38: 31 Can you bind the chains of the Plei'ades, or loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the Maz'zaroth2 in their season, or can you guide the Bear1 with its children? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's3 dominion over the earth?...
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens 38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? 39 "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions 40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?
1) or Leo
2) alternate translations include morning star and zodiac
3) or their
Lamentations 3: 10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding; 11 he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 12 he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow. 13 He drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver;
Bold=My Emphasis
These references are interesting because they seem to relate to astrology, which many Christians have come to view as an evil perversion of the hebrew zodiac, or Maz'zaroth. Also, neither the bear nor the lion are native to the Levant. This would lead me to believe that these actually are astrological references and not the author speaking extemporaneously. Further evidence of this is the equation of bear and lion in both passages.
The Job reference is quite obviously a bit of astrology, as it begins with the Pleiades, or 7 Sisters. This may also be where the theme of 7's originates. If one takes the "morning star" translation of the Job passage, this could be a reference to the Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte/et al. goddess, who were represented by the planet Venus. It is notable that Astarte was both the sister and consort (or according to some sources wife) of the Syro-Palestinian deity El. Also if one replaces "God's" with "their," as per the footnote, we have another reference to the curious Elohim. This makes it more likely that the speaker here is El as opposed to Yahweh, though the two had been somewhat merged by this point.
Another interpretation of the "their" footnote is that the pronoun is refering to the Maz'zaroth, or Semitic Zodiac. This would then be a very strange verse if it attributed power over the earth to the Zodiac. If this is to be the interpretation, the Lamentations passage could also be construed as meaning that these negative events happened due to some astrological alignment. I doubt there is any way to prove that for certain, but it is an interesting viewpoint from which to look at other seemingly odd sections.
It is also interesting that El equates himself with the astrological sign of Aquarius when he says "Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens." As the sign of aquarius is a man pouring out a jar of water. This may sound like a stretch, but given a series of previous anecdotes, I believe it makes sense. For more info about the Great Year and Great Months, or Ages, click here. First off there is the golden calf incident that occured at the earliest 2200-1800 BCE. This was around the end of the Age of Taurus(ca 4300-2150 BCE). After the Age of Taurus, we have the Age of Aires(ca 2150BCE-1CE). As you probably already know, Aires is represented as a ram.. During this period the blowing of the shofar, or Ram's horn, was involved in many a religious ceremony in Judaism. The horn of any animal can be used as long as it is not of a bovine, because of the golden calf incident. Also interesting are the variants of El, including El-Eyal and El-Ayil. Ayil and Eyal are related words in hebrew, the latter means "power" and the former means "ram." Then comes the Age of Pisces(ca 1CE-2150CE) represented by two fish. There is plenty of fish (the sign of pisces) imagery connected with Jesus, i.e. the two fisherman brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, the feeding of the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, Mat. 4:19 "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," etc... Furthermore, when asked (indirectly) about his return Jesus says "And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; (Mark 14:13, Luke 22:11). Given all of this, and that the apocolyptic visions of Enoch, Daniel, and Revelation sound much more like the despotic El/Yahweh deity than the pacifistic Christ, I believe it is safe to assume that the apocolypse, or second coming, is merely a reference to the passing of the Age of Pisces and the coming Age of Aquarius.
As the Zodiac was most likely developed in Babylonia, it should not be surprising that it has quite a heavy influence on the local Levantine mythologies that conglomerated to form what is now the Judeo-Christian tradition. Also, many different cultures have mythologies that are heavily influenced by the zodiac. These seem to originate independently in different cultures as well, as Chinese, Mayan, and Near Eastern zodiacs all appear to have developed regardless of contact with each other.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
| When reading Proverbs, I noticed that one main theme continued to reoccur. Throughout the entire book, verse after verse seemed to say "watch out for promiscuous women." For example, chapter 2, verses 16-18: "It will lead you from the adulteress, from the loose woman with her smooth words, who has forsaken the partner of her youth and forgotten the covenant of her God; for her house is the way down to death, and her course leads to the land of the dead" There are many other verse almost identical to this example. (5:3-6, 7:10-27, etc.) I found it interesting that this one point was so dominate throughout the book. There were other points and themes within Proverbs, but I thought that this one really stood out since it was mentioned so many times. Ecclesiastes also seemed to be centered around one or two main themes. I found that it seemed to be saying "wisdom before wealth," and "Pleasure and happiness is a direct result of God." As in Proverbs, there were many verses which mention these points in similar ways...many times even using repetition. I know this might all be obvious to everyone as they read the books, but I just found it interesting that both of the books seemed to be centered around one or two main points, it is almost like they are both teachings, or sermons of some sort. |
Monday, October 8, 2007
If Wisdom is personified as a woman....
why are no real wise women found in the wisdom literature?
"After searching long without success: I have found one man in a thousand worthy to be called upright, but I have not found one woman among them all" - Ecclesiastes 7:28
(that makes me mad!)
I definitely think it's cool that Wisdom is personified as a woman in Proverbs... this seems radical, against the background of a text where women are only praised for their work as wives.
"After searching long without success: I have found one man in a thousand worthy to be called upright, but I have not found one woman among them all" - Ecclesiastes 7:28
(that makes me mad!)
I definitely think it's cool that Wisdom is personified as a woman in Proverbs... this seems radical, against the background of a text where women are only praised for their work as wives.
Responses
I just thought I would add this picture to give us a little comic relief. It seems to summarize a lot of my feelings during this course! ha!Noah - nice!
I don't know what to make of it all, but I love it. It's unbelievable how many traditions that can be found in the sediment of Christianity's stories.
Pratik - disturbing!
I don't think I've ever questioned the logic that you just spelled out, but it does support this picture of a god that wants to punish the very attributes it proclaims to have programmed in its subjects.
Candace - I'm floored!
I would love to work with someone to compile the canon of Wisdom. If she is the perfect entity of knowledge and, of course, wisdom, then I would rather be reading her book!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Wisdom as a Woman
I've been reading the next article on the syllabus, "The Perspective of Wisdom", and came upon a reference to Proverbs. In the scripture, Wisdom is personified in feminine form. What interests me, is that she has her own voice. In it, she claims to have been the first creation of the Lord himself, as well as "his darling and delight" as he finished the rest of his labors.
The article goes on to discuss whether this appearance is a "personification" or "hypostatization". The definition of the second term sounds kind of like the shekinah of Jewish Kabbalah. The term originally referred to the "visible manifestation of the Divine Majesty" according to the OED, but in the tradition of some Jewish mystics it has come to be understood as the feminine aspect of divinity.
Interesting stuff.
The article goes on to discuss whether this appearance is a "personification" or "hypostatization". The definition of the second term sounds kind of like the shekinah of Jewish Kabbalah. The term originally referred to the "visible manifestation of the Divine Majesty" according to the OED, but in the tradition of some Jewish mystics it has come to be understood as the feminine aspect of divinity.
Interesting stuff.
~ Proverbs discussed in class ~
I was goin through the proverbs we discussed in class and a particular sprang up @ me:
Folly is deep-rooted in the hearts of children; a good beating will drive it out of them.
(22:15 ~ Page 673)
So, who has deep rooted this 'folly' in the hearts of children ? God as the creator I guess?!! Then why the blame the children?? Besides the meaning of folly has been changed from 'Perilously or criminally foolish action, Evil; wickedness, Lewdness; lasciviousness' to 'A lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight; An act or instance of foolishness'. What is the modern reader supposed to interpret?! I'm studying this text so I took the trouble to find all definitions of 'folly' but I doubt an ordinary church-goer will find obsolete meanings on the OED!! He would rather bash his child up for lacking understanding. Moreover, it seems to encourage corporal punishment towards children rather than the non-corporal way!! I thought a child was associated with innocence. All my heart out to those unlucky children!!
Folly is deep-rooted in the hearts of children; a good beating will drive it out of them.
(22:15 ~ Page 673)
So, who has deep rooted this 'folly' in the hearts of children ? God as the creator I guess?!! Then why the blame the children?? Besides the meaning of folly has been changed from 'Perilously or criminally foolish action, Evil; wickedness, Lewdness; lasciviousness' to 'A lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight; An act or instance of foolishness'. What is the modern reader supposed to interpret?! I'm studying this text so I took the trouble to find all definitions of 'folly' but I doubt an ordinary church-goer will find obsolete meanings on the OED!! He would rather bash his child up for lacking understanding. Moreover, it seems to encourage corporal punishment towards children rather than the non-corporal way!! I thought a child was associated with innocence. All my heart out to those unlucky children!!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Prophetic fulfillment, Marcionism, C.S. Lewis and Sol Invictus
First off, thanks joey and kathryn.
As for Christ having no credibility in Marcionism, i'm only aware of one argument, and its a bit out there, but somewhat interesting. It could be considered an offshoot of C.S. Lewis' "true myth" concept. One could argue that Jesus was the concrete embodiment of any number, or the culmination of all of the "Solar Messiah" mythologies (or for this case, prophecies). Jesus shares many attributes with various sun-deities, most of which seem to originate in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian mythology (and hence most derivative mythologies) regarding the sun seems to derive from the sun's apparent movement around the time of the winter solstice. As the solstice (around Dec 21-22) approaches the sun moves further towards the south, and on the solstice it stops. During this solstice and for the following two days the sun's trajectory does not change. Around the 25th the sun's trajectory starts to move back towards the north, or rise. Here's a diagram to help explain:
the lower picture represents the most southerly path the sun takes, usually on the 21st or 22nd of December; the sun stays on this path for approximately 3 days.
This astrological phenomenon is where many of the death-rebirth sun-deity myths originate. This is also why many pre-Christian religions have festivals around Christmas, and certain sects within christianity reject the celebration of Christmas as tainted by paganism. The most notable of these is the Roman festival of Sol Invictus. This was a celebration worshipping several different sun deities that occured on Dec 25. Easter is also usually right around the vernal (spring) equinox for similar reasons, i.e. Spring being representative of the rebirth of the life which appears dead during the harsh winter, new beginnings, etc.
The occurrence of an actual event that was foretold in the sky and seeped into what could be considered a "Jung-ian" collective subconscious through various mythologies regarding the life enabling star could be considered to be fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus Christ.
However, given that many of the astro-&-theo-logical elements were very possibly added to the story of Jesus later, as opposed to being actual events, this argument has lots of holes that I can't logically patch up.
Like I said, its quite a stretch, and I certainly don't endorse this myself, but it is an interesting argument nonetheless.
As for Christ having no credibility in Marcionism, i'm only aware of one argument, and its a bit out there, but somewhat interesting. It could be considered an offshoot of C.S. Lewis' "true myth" concept. One could argue that Jesus was the concrete embodiment of any number, or the culmination of all of the "Solar Messiah" mythologies (or for this case, prophecies). Jesus shares many attributes with various sun-deities, most of which seem to originate in ancient Egypt. The Egyptian mythology (and hence most derivative mythologies) regarding the sun seems to derive from the sun's apparent movement around the time of the winter solstice. As the solstice (around Dec 21-22) approaches the sun moves further towards the south, and on the solstice it stops. During this solstice and for the following two days the sun's trajectory does not change. Around the 25th the sun's trajectory starts to move back towards the north, or rise. Here's a diagram to help explain:
the lower picture represents the most southerly path the sun takes, usually on the 21st or 22nd of December; the sun stays on this path for approximately 3 days.
This astrological phenomenon is where many of the death-rebirth sun-deity myths originate. This is also why many pre-Christian religions have festivals around Christmas, and certain sects within christianity reject the celebration of Christmas as tainted by paganism. The most notable of these is the Roman festival of Sol Invictus. This was a celebration worshipping several different sun deities that occured on Dec 25. Easter is also usually right around the vernal (spring) equinox for similar reasons, i.e. Spring being representative of the rebirth of the life which appears dead during the harsh winter, new beginnings, etc.
The occurrence of an actual event that was foretold in the sky and seeped into what could be considered a "Jung-ian" collective subconscious through various mythologies regarding the life enabling star could be considered to be fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus Christ.
However, given that many of the astro-&-theo-logical elements were very possibly added to the story of Jesus later, as opposed to being actual events, this argument has lots of holes that I can't logically patch up.
Like I said, its quite a stretch, and I certainly don't endorse this myself, but it is an interesting argument nonetheless.
Monday, October 1, 2007
More On Prophecy's Necessity
Well, it seems to me that Jesus had only prophecy to support him because the Jews were already looking for a supposed messiah. If you read the gospels literally, his miracles also attest to validity, but that's a bit far-fetched. Let's just peruse the gospels using a skeptic's filter - the only logical and natural support is prophecy. If Marcion discounts the OT, and if miracles are a creation of later chroniclers, then Jesus has nothing more than a claim of fulfillment. Unfortunately, that, too, is empty because there would be nothing to fulfill.
Response to Noah and Joey
Noah, I love the comparison you brought up concerning the verses in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. Yahweh's duality is a fascinating concept.
Joey, you mention that Jesus relies on prophesy to obtain credibilty. I guess I've never thought about where Christ's credibilty comes from, and instead took it for granted. However, I see exactly what you mean.
I just wanted to thank both of you for your posts as they've allowed me to consider new things.
Thanks!
Joey, you mention that Jesus relies on prophesy to obtain credibilty. I guess I've never thought about where Christ's credibilty comes from, and instead took it for granted. However, I see exactly what you mean.
I just wanted to thank both of you for your posts as they've allowed me to consider new things.
Thanks!
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