I have returned to my re-reading of a series of ancient documents associated with Jews or Christians of long ago. To what purpose? To learn more about the roots of my Judeo-Christian faith; but also to remind myself that men and women of every age have asked the same human questions: What of suffering? Does God judge justly? Why are we even here?
Tonight's reading was short and in essence, is the story of a man who got no answer to his burning question. But it also acquainted me with its first modern translator, the esteemed Constantin von Tischendorf, who traveled far and wide and labored diligently to prove to the world that the Bible had been faithfully transmitted over the centuries; as well as the recent translator of the work, Michael E. Stone, another great scholar,
Greek Apocalypse of Ezra
Once again, we have a strange little writing of unknown provenance, and a composition date that ranges from 150 to 850 A.D. We have no knowledge of whether it was ever accepted as a sacred writing, who wrote it or why, other than he was a Greek-speaking Christian and probably sought to build on existing Ezraic tradition, esp. 4th Ezra.
Though a 15th century Greek manuscript of the text was known to scholars, it fell to the great scholar Constantin von Tischendorf to publish the first edition for the modern age. (In Latin?) This was the same man who discovered the earliest extant version of the Bible, Codex Sinaiticus, in St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai; and who also published, in 1847, an account of his journeys, “Travels in the East.”
This edition is the work of Michael E. Stone, emeritus professor of Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Another interesting scholar and a poet as well.
The writer’s God is one who can be approached, even argued with. And this Ezra does.
It begins with his request to be glorified that he may see God’s mysteries, and find an answer to his gloomy question: isn’t it better that mankind was never born?
God and Ezra both acknowledge that His judgment is just but Ezra, as noted above, wonders why sinful man was created. He gets no real response but seeks to see hell itself. The various torments bring forth his question, again, and still no answer.
Ultimately, God takes his soul to glory and the questions are never answered.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Saturday, November 12, 2016
I recently enjoyed a chocolate bar, and enjoyed it even more when I learned that the cacao tree from which it came, was grown by former coca (as in cocaine) farmers in Peru, now working in the Acopagro Co-Op. for a much better use of their land. www.alterecofoods.com/trees .
I love it when I learn about good people righting a wrong and making this world a little more of what our Heavenly Father wants it to be.
I love it when I learn about good people righting a wrong and making this world a little more of what our Heavenly Father wants it to be.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Monday, December 28, 2015
"The Appalachians are slump-shouldered and low by alpine standards, dwarfed by the Rockies, mere hills next to the raw and knife-edged heights of the Andes or Alaska Range ... they've dwindled to their present size simply because they've had the time to ..." -- Earl Swift, The Tangierman's Lament.
In Europe and in South America, mountains divide. Cross a mountain in South America and although you might still hear the language of the conquistadors, you'll likely be in a different country. Cross a mountain range in Europe and you'll likely have not only a new country beneath your feet but a completely different language ringing in your ears.
Why not in what we call the United States of America? How did it happen that one nation and one language stretches from the Olympics of Washington State to the Appalachian foothills of Georgia? Was it the speed and intensity of settlement? Was it because it took place during a technological revolution, first with trains and then automobiles breaking down barriers of distance and difficulty?
In Europe and in South America, mountains divide. Cross a mountain in South America and although you might still hear the language of the conquistadors, you'll likely be in a different country. Cross a mountain range in Europe and you'll likely have not only a new country beneath your feet but a completely different language ringing in your ears.
Why not in what we call the United States of America? How did it happen that one nation and one language stretches from the Olympics of Washington State to the Appalachian foothills of Georgia? Was it the speed and intensity of settlement? Was it because it took place during a technological revolution, first with trains and then automobiles breaking down barriers of distance and difficulty?
Saturday, December 19, 2015
"Often the lone-dweller waits for favor,
mercy of the Measurer, though he unhappy
across the seaways long time must
stir with his hands the rime-cold sea,
tread exile tracks. Fate is established!"
Thus wrote the ancient Anglo-Saxon "wanderer," in words whose poignancy has never been equaled, of the pain of exile. Does it matter if it is voluntary or imposed?
Today I ponder Louis Adamic, a gifted 20th century writer who is not well known these days. Of Slovenian birth, 1899, he emigrated to the United States and threw himself with an immigrant's passion into his new land, becoming known for advocacy of the labor movement. But something must have pained him, some sense of the lost homeland. Two of his books, Native's Return and My Native Land, touched on the subject.
Perhaps that sense of never quite belonging in the new place, of being a stranger even among friends, fueled his founding of the Common Council for American Unity, a group aimed at strengthening ties of human brotherhood.
In one terse line of his entry in Collier's Encyclopedia, the end of his life is summed up: he died an apparent suicide, in 1951. The pain of exile triumphed, albeit in phyrric victory.
Rest in peace, Louis Adamic. You have returned to the homeland from which we never leave again.
mercy of the Measurer, though he unhappy
across the seaways long time must
stir with his hands the rime-cold sea,
tread exile tracks. Fate is established!"
Thus wrote the ancient Anglo-Saxon "wanderer," in words whose poignancy has never been equaled, of the pain of exile. Does it matter if it is voluntary or imposed?
Today I ponder Louis Adamic, a gifted 20th century writer who is not well known these days. Of Slovenian birth, 1899, he emigrated to the United States and threw himself with an immigrant's passion into his new land, becoming known for advocacy of the labor movement. But something must have pained him, some sense of the lost homeland. Two of his books, Native's Return and My Native Land, touched on the subject.
Perhaps that sense of never quite belonging in the new place, of being a stranger even among friends, fueled his founding of the Common Council for American Unity, a group aimed at strengthening ties of human brotherhood.
In one terse line of his entry in Collier's Encyclopedia, the end of his life is summed up: he died an apparent suicide, in 1951. The pain of exile triumphed, albeit in phyrric victory.
Rest in peace, Louis Adamic. You have returned to the homeland from which we never leave again.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Continuing with the Sibylline Oracles ... Book 8
So I continue my slow re-read of these strange pseudepigraphical books -- a great heap of supposed prophecies with nothing to unify them except their pseudepigraphical connection to the mythical, ancient Sibylline Oracles, thus their titles. They are a mixed up salad bowl of Jewish, Christian and pagan concepts -- sometimes impossibly obscure, now and then clear and beautiful.
Sibylline Oracles, Book 8:
This “book” is two writings fused together:
1) Verses 1-216 with exceedingly uncertain (but probably singular and Jewish) authorship dating to around 175 A.D., excepting 131-138, which are the work of an Egyptian Sibyllist. The latter were probably inserted, being pro-Hadrian, by an editor seeking to lessen the earlier attack on Hadrian.
2) Verses 217-500, by a Christian author, before the 4th century.
It is difficult today, when Rome is a tourist destination with all the political power of Lisbon, to fully grasp just what an entity it once was, inspiring fear and absolute loathing hundreds of miles away.
But this is a literary example of this phenomenon. In the era of Marcus Aurelius, the author is one of many who repeats the legend of the dreaded Nero’s return to life and power. One would think that such a loathsome and craven wretch as Nero would have been securely dead and buried in the popular imagination – but apparently not.
***
The hope and theme of this author is summed up in v. 125:
“No longer will Syrian, Greek, or foreigner, or any other nation,
place their neck under your [Roman] yoke of slavery.”
In the second half, the life and Passion of Christ is retold, the one who on the cross will “stretch out his hands and measure the entire world.” v. 302.
“I myself proposed two ways, of life and death ...” (399)
God as “self-begotten, everlasting, undefiled and eternal (429),” per our editor, is also found in pagan writings. He is Master of the Cosmic Treasury. And with the Word He counseled before Creation.
Several times in this work, the author expresses anti-temple sentiments, especially in the last stanza: saying we are never allowed to approach the sanctuaries of temples. Paul, who risked his very life to attend the Jewish temple, might have raised an eyebrow at that.
***
Why should anybody, in 2015, care about the musings of some anonymous, anti-Roman scribe from nearly 2,000 years ago?
Perhaps because there is utility in understanding the common psychological thread that runs through humanity, from earliest history to today. We look at awful, human-caused tragedies and vow, Never Again – but it WILL happen again until we understand why it ever happened, why it keeps happening.
And perhaps it is also useful to realize that humankind has always grappled with the same issues: we long for ourselves and our loved-ones to avoid the inevitable, the Reaper who comes for all. From one of the oldest books in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, through the pages of the Bible and in today’s science fiction, writers have pondered that deep-rooted concern and woven their words around it.
Conversely, our nightmares are haunted by the possibility of those whom we don’t love, succeeding at immortality. If the writer of this Oracle speculated on the possible return from supposed death, of Nero; so not too long ago people speculated that the madman Adolf Hitler had somehow survived WWII and was still hiding out somewhere. And of course, the endless return of villains, from supposed annihilation, is a staple of the horror genre.
Finally, the author of at least the second part of this work was familiar with the Apocalypse of John, i.e., the Revelation of John, living just a generation or so after it was written – so this book might be of importance to scholars of the New Testament seeking to understand the milieu, the theme, the motivation of the writer of said Revelation.
Sibylline Oracles, Book 8:
This “book” is two writings fused together:
1) Verses 1-216 with exceedingly uncertain (but probably singular and Jewish) authorship dating to around 175 A.D., excepting 131-138, which are the work of an Egyptian Sibyllist. The latter were probably inserted, being pro-Hadrian, by an editor seeking to lessen the earlier attack on Hadrian.
2) Verses 217-500, by a Christian author, before the 4th century.
It is difficult today, when Rome is a tourist destination with all the political power of Lisbon, to fully grasp just what an entity it once was, inspiring fear and absolute loathing hundreds of miles away.
But this is a literary example of this phenomenon. In the era of Marcus Aurelius, the author is one of many who repeats the legend of the dreaded Nero’s return to life and power. One would think that such a loathsome and craven wretch as Nero would have been securely dead and buried in the popular imagination – but apparently not.
***
The hope and theme of this author is summed up in v. 125:
“No longer will Syrian, Greek, or foreigner, or any other nation,
place their neck under your [Roman] yoke of slavery.”
In the second half, the life and Passion of Christ is retold, the one who on the cross will “stretch out his hands and measure the entire world.” v. 302.
“I myself proposed two ways, of life and death ...” (399)
God as “self-begotten, everlasting, undefiled and eternal (429),” per our editor, is also found in pagan writings. He is Master of the Cosmic Treasury. And with the Word He counseled before Creation.
Several times in this work, the author expresses anti-temple sentiments, especially in the last stanza: saying we are never allowed to approach the sanctuaries of temples. Paul, who risked his very life to attend the Jewish temple, might have raised an eyebrow at that.
***
Why should anybody, in 2015, care about the musings of some anonymous, anti-Roman scribe from nearly 2,000 years ago?
Perhaps because there is utility in understanding the common psychological thread that runs through humanity, from earliest history to today. We look at awful, human-caused tragedies and vow, Never Again – but it WILL happen again until we understand why it ever happened, why it keeps happening.
And perhaps it is also useful to realize that humankind has always grappled with the same issues: we long for ourselves and our loved-ones to avoid the inevitable, the Reaper who comes for all. From one of the oldest books in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, through the pages of the Bible and in today’s science fiction, writers have pondered that deep-rooted concern and woven their words around it.
Conversely, our nightmares are haunted by the possibility of those whom we don’t love, succeeding at immortality. If the writer of this Oracle speculated on the possible return from supposed death, of Nero; so not too long ago people speculated that the madman Adolf Hitler had somehow survived WWII and was still hiding out somewhere. And of course, the endless return of villains, from supposed annihilation, is a staple of the horror genre.
Finally, the author of at least the second part of this work was familiar with the Apocalypse of John, i.e., the Revelation of John, living just a generation or so after it was written – so this book might be of importance to scholars of the New Testament seeking to understand the milieu, the theme, the motivation of the writer of said Revelation.
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