Bible Study
Sep. 21st, 2011 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callmemadam
As everyone knows, this year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of The King James Bible. I seem to have undertaken the Bible challenge without knowing there was one.
I decided to have the Bible on my Kindle and to try out some samples first, to make sure I was getting something easy to read. The first one I’ve downloaded has illustrations by Gustave Doré which are pale on the Kindle and not worth having. I’m now annoyed to find that ‘your Amazon library’ doesn’t include samples you’ve requested. I can see from my Kindle that I have ‘The Holy Bible, King James Version, Church of England illustrated Gustave Doré’ but no amount of searching will bring this same version up on Amazon again. *Sigh*. Fine if I decide to buy it but not much use for recommending it to anyone else. Kindle samples are usually two chapters long so with the Bible you get a lot of text to try.
I’m reading the whole thing straight through, hence the Bible Challenge. This is an odd experience that makes me wonder if people my age have the Authorised Version built into their DNA. Pages and pages of tedious begetting and smiting and the inexplicable actions of a capricious Almighty, then suddenly whammo! a passage that you know by heart. Sunday School? Scripture lessons? Hearing the lessons read week after week in church? I just don’t know but the stories are as familiar as nursery rhymes. Here they come: Esau and Jacob; Jacob’s ladder; Jacob serving for Rachel; Joseph and his coat of many colours, his life in Egypt, the seven fat years followed by the seven lean ones and so on.
I can’t help wondering about people who don’t have all this in their heads. Whether or not you are a believer (I am, BTW) you have to accept that our culture is based on the Judaeo-Christian tradition and therefore it’s referenced constantly in art, literature and music. Just one example: James Mortmain’s book Jacob Wrestling in I Capture the Castle. It must be strange not to get all these allusions naturally and to need footnotes and endless explanations; like having to learn a new language. So I think there’s a good case for at least teaching children bible stories, which can be done without indoctrination.
I prefer the Authorised Version both because it’s familiar and because it’s literature. I always have trouble with the attempted sacrifice of Isaac though, because I can never get Bob Dylan’s version out of my head.
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What ?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done ?"
God says. "Out on Highway 61".
For all I know, someone has written a thesis on ‘Biblical influences in the music of Bob Dylan’.The challenge is to name a song with biblical references. Example, Pete Seeger’s Turn, Turn, Turn. I know this post will seem naïve to some people but I’m not a biblical scholar, just someone who’s finding she knows the Bible better than she thought she did and is wondering how common this is.
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Date: 2011-09-21 10:16 am (UTC)Though that's probably cheating.
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Date: 2011-09-21 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 10:34 am (UTC)It's Leonard Cohen's version that sticks with me.
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Date: 2011-09-21 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 12:18 pm (UTC)"God's Song" by Randy Newman
"Eva" by Boudewijn de Groot
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Date: 2011-09-21 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 02:00 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxhDwqwMgaY
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Date: 2011-09-21 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 04:49 pm (UTC)I believe the "dem bones" song is called "Dry Bones". I didn't know it was a spiritual, or did I misunderstand?
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Date: 2011-09-22 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 02:59 pm (UTC)Which also reminds me of Cole Porter's I Love You, which contains the line: 'That's the Song of Songs'. Cole Porter's songs are full of biblical references - Blow, Gabriel, Blow. And there's one about Adam and Eve.
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Date: 2011-09-22 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 05:33 pm (UTC)A song with biblical references. I was going to say It Ain't Necessarily So but someone else got there first. In which case, almost anything by Leonard Cohen...
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Date: 2011-09-22 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 07:24 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jon1nQHr2E
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Date: 2011-09-22 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 01:16 pm (UTC)Such a great song but he's written so many.
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Date: 2011-09-22 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-25 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-26 06:40 am (UTC)Still going; I'm on Moses now.