Mark 13 and "The Bible Experience"

In a class on Mark we hear and read the gospel. We watch sections of actors doing gospel performances and we listen to the Bible on CD, particularly The Bible Experience. We compare and critique different versions, paying attention to rhetorical features of the text. Sometimes, we do our own rendition of the text in class. Yesterday, we listened to different readings of Mark 13, the longest speech of Jesus in Mark.

Something very strange takes place in the version recorded for "The Bible Experience." The apocalyptic and prophetic register of Jesus' words is almost entirely muted and in its place, beginning softly and rising to a crescendo that overtakes the words, we hear first piano and then harp in peaceful, soothing cadences. No other version of Mark 13 I have heard is like this. The version in "The Word of Promise", for example, retains the apocalyptic tenor of Jesus' words.

What's going on? One student suggested different theologies. That of "The Bible Experience" looks at apocalyptic from a removed perspective of assured deliverance. There's no question that what you hear is music overtaking words: a mood of serenity distances the listener from the dissonance and alarm of apocalyptic. Jesus' prophetic voice has been muted to the point of evisceration.

We decided that there's plenty of room for new and better recordings of Mark's gospel and we'd be happy to make one.

Peace in Kenya: Now Comes the Hard Part

This is good news.

The Nation Editorial dated 2/29 says:-

All must realise that the signing of the agreement on Wednesday is but the first step in what will be a long and delicate process. The formation of a coalition government is merely the minimum requirement for the more difficult work to follow.

The real return to peace and stability will be realised, not just with a coalition government, but with the next agenda item on the negotiations that includes comprehensive constitutional review, focusing very much on sensitive issues such as devolution, land reform, ethnic relations and establishment of a just and equitable society.

Many of those are issues we have preferred not to address since independence in the hope that they would solve themselves.

The post-election violence that threatened to send Kenya hurtling down the precipice indicated that we may have all along been living in a fools’ paradise.

The events of the past two months opened our eyes to the realisation that we can no longer continue to sweep under the carpet pressing national issues.

Now we have no choice but to confront them and to find solutions that are satisfactory to all groups in the country.

Here's a link to an excellent essay by Geraldine Brooks, "Praying as if There is a God" in On Faith from the Washington Post.

Public Art part 2

This is "Large Sad Sphere" by Tom Otterness, part of the 40th anniversary of a temporary public art program in which Parks & Recreation presents 40 installations at parks throughout the five boroughs. "Art in the Parks: Celebrating 40 Years" includes installations by George Rickey and Tony Smith, as well as others such as Tom Otterness, George Sánchez-Calderón, Arthur Simms, Anne Peabody and Minsuk Cho.

The bronze sculpture is right next to a children's playground at 11th and 23rd in Chelsea at part of the Hudson River Park.

Apparently, “Large Sad Sphere” infuses the artist’s distinctive whimsy with a new depth of emotion. “Usually, as parents, we think ‘Oh, give kids happy sculptures all the time,’” says Otterness. “And I think that kids are really touched by having something with real emotion or with a different emotion to acknowledge that sometimes they’re sad.”

Behind the sculpture you can see the new building: 200 Eleventh Avenue, calling itself the first in NYC to offer "ensuite sky garages". I rather fancy that "Large Sad Sphere" is reacting to this!

The BBC reports that Turkey's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

Morning Off with Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610

Here's a link to a concert performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 performed at Trinity Wall Street by the Trinity Choir and soloists from the choir with Rebel Baroque Orchestra conducted by Andrew MeGill. You'll need Windows Media Player. I'm taking the morning off after my exertions of yesterday: sermons at the 8.00 and 9.30am followed by the Rector's Forum followed by a two hour afternoon class.

Democratic Evangelicals

Amy Sullivan writing for the Washington Post:

But now, after 30 years in the wilderness, the Democratic Party is being reborn. The "Come to Jesus" moment was Sen. John F. Kerry's loss in 2004. Catholic Democrats, shocked at the idea that it might be impossible for one of them to ever again win the White House, banded together to push back against their church and their party. Religious liberals, angered at being left out of the definition of "values voters," finally rose from their slumber. Kerry himself called on his colleagues to get over their discomfort with matters of faith.

Most important, led by the two main contenders for the party's 2008 nomination, religious Democrats are publicly reclaiming their faith. I've gotten used to people coming out to me when I speak to Democratic audiences these days. "I'm religious, too," they'll whisper in my ear as they shake my hand quickly. Not long after the 2004 election, a congressional aide identified himself as an evangelical during a public Q&A. He told me afterward that it was the first time he'd "outed" himself in front of fellow Democrats. "How did it feel?" I asked. He paused. "A little scary," he said. "But good." Now he's one of a growing class of consultants who advise Democratic candidates about how to court religious voters.

Here's a bio of Amy Sullivan.

Public Art

Jonathan Jones has a look at new examples of public art in the UK. Apparently the Angel of the South is underway at Ebbsfleet in Kent. People have come up with their own ideas. Here's one from the Guardian:



I'm keeping an eye out in my travels this weekend.

CSM's Jane Lampman on The Torah: A Women's Commentary

Today's CSM has an excellent review article written by Jane Lampman on The Torah: A Women's Commentary:

The editor of the commentary, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, recalls how some responded to the December release.

"An 80-year-old woman, embracing her copy, said, 'I've been waiting for this all my life.' And a young woman told me, 'For the first time, I am included in the conversation,'" Dr. Eskenazi says.

One of the stories that highlight the import of biblical women begins in Numbers 27. Five sisters challenge an inheritance practice that would deprive them of their father's land. They speak to Moses and the entire leadership.

"Moses speaks to God and God responds that these five daughters speak rightly," Eskenazi says. "This is an extraordinary moment. It is the only time in the Pentateuch that a law is initiated by people, rather than God, and it becomes a 'law from Sinai,' binding for all future generations."

For the women of Reform Judaism, this is just what they have done – insist on their share – not of land, but in inheriting the Torah and participating in the ongoing Jewish conversation.

Off to St Louis for the Consortium of Endowed Parishes meeting

tonight! And thereafter to Philadelphia to preach the gospel on Sunday at 8.00 and 9.30am, speak at the Rector's Forum, and teach an afternoon class on Jesus' Family Values. How do the clergy do it????

David Baer on "Personalization" in Greek Isaiah

Just a follow-up to yesterday's post: the second chapter of David Baer's,"When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56-66" (Sheffield 2001) notes the tendency of the Greek translator of Isaiah to turn non-imperative forms into imperatives:

Isaiah 57:1 reads in the Hebrew, "The righteous person perishes and no one take it to heart" whereas the Greek translation is, "See how the righteous person has perished, yet no one takes it to heart!" This is the only place where the imperative "See!" appears without any justification in the text (p.51).

The first of six occurrences imperativizing the verb "see" in LXX Isaiah occurs in Is 9:1, when the Hebrew, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness--on them has light shone" is rendered in the Greek, "O people walking in darkness, see a great light! O you who dwell in a land and in a shadow of death, light shall shine upon you."

Here we see the introduction of the imperative and the personalization (discussed at further length in Baer's chapter 3). Is 9:1 now addresses contemporary listeners and the verse is deployed perhaps in a homiletical direction.

Chapter 3 calls attention to "the substitution of first and second person grammatical forms for third person forms" in the Greek translation of Isaiah (p.52). The translator thus creates a text speaking to "you"and "us" i.e. the audience including the author. Isaiah 26:16: "O Lord, in distress they sought thee, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them" becomes, "Lord, in distress I remembered thee, in slight affliction was thy correction upon us." Chapter 26 is introduced as a song sung in the land of Judah.

Here's a 2003 review of Baer's book from RBL. Perhaps these changes are features of oral delivery. Could these examples be a reflection of a preacher in 2nd C BCE Alexandria speaking to diaspora Jews?