Magdlyn

I just listened to the radio show. Anyone else listen to it and want to discuss it?

This forum is for Biblical History, and we can assume that the hunt for the "original meaning" of the texts, the authors' motivations, is one of the purposes here.

But Armstrong seems to focus on other ideas. In the radio interview, she emphasizes that the compilers of the Torah, in exile in Babylon post 1st Temple destruction, and the authors of the gospels post 2nd Temple destruction, used their scriptures to find meaning, or God's purpose, for their contemporary life. Later, the rabbis who wrote the Talmuds and Mishnah, and the "Church Fathers" did the same thing.

This could be termed "personal growth" as we might call it today. In the past (in my view), it was called a search for sophia, gnosis, the kingdom of God/heaven or enlightenment.

Toto

In the part that I heard, she concentrated on speaking against fundamentalism, and said that up until the 19th century believers all interpreted the texts on several different levels.

I think that this book is not aimed at scholars. Its aim is to get some ideas into circulation - in particular anti-fundamentalism, which is an admiriable political agenda.

gstafleu

The idea that extasis/enosis is part of what myth aims at is not so strange, I'd guess that most mythologists would agree with it. You find it in a variety of myths, from The Legend of the Buffalo Dance to the story of Tubber Tintye.

Gerard Stafleu

gstafleu

In between the possibilities of on the one hand a literal reading and on the other a metaphor on the personal level, stands the reading of a metaphor for growth as a nation of the Israelites. The story can be read as a hero tale, where the hero is not an individual but a whole people.

Gerard Stafleu

Magdlyn

Good point. Of course, in the prophets and other writings, Israel as a whole is seen as a bride of YHWH, as well as other things. "Her" relationship to YHWH is a common theme. She does not come off too well as a hero, however. Sadly, more often as an unfaithful "whore."

judge

Well personal growth is a term one might use today, but doesn't Paul's commentary on this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 interpret it from this perspective?

If not, then what perspective might you see in Paul's commentary?

And yet we find in the gospels Jesus telling folk to clean the inside of the cup (rather than the outside), to remove the log from their own eye, etc etc...

We find Paul telling people to examine themsleves, James telling people to confess their sins to one another.

Jeffrey Gibson

What do you mean by personal growth and what is it within 1 Corinthians 10 do you see as indicating individual personal growth?

Jeffrey

judge

If a person becomes aware of their own shortcomings (where they miss the mark) and change ensues then they grow as a person.

Jeffrey Gibson

Who are the audiences of these imperatives? And why -- for what purpose -- does Jesus tell his audience to do what he says they should do? Why -- for what purpose -- does Paul think it necessary for his congregants to engage in self examination? Why -- for what purpose -- does James tell his particulat adressees to communally confess their sins?


Jeffrey

Jeffrey Gibson

And where in the Corinthians text is Paul speaking to individuals qua individuals. Is he not speaking to them as those who gain their identity as members of a corporate body?

And is Paul asking them to become or grow into something that corporately they are not? Or is he aksing them to be (or to get back to being) what they, as the new Isreal, already are?

Jeffrey