I was listening to Public Radio the other day and stumbled across a story that struck my interest. It was on This American Life which I enjoy. The topic was knowing when to fold or retreat during big moments in one's life. It started out with a young man who was raised in an evangelical christian household went away to college to become a pastor, took theology classes and started questioning everything in the bible including it legitimacy. He argued every point as a literal interpretation. He brought up the following example.
Joshua 10:12
On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!
So I have had this conversation with many people throughout my reading of the bible...Do you take everything in it literally?
I am still undecided on this part. The scientific side of my brain says absolutely. It is to be taken literally and this also proves or disproves it.
The other side of my brain (I don't have a name for it yet) says not to take everything literally. It may be poetically or symbolically written.
How does the NPR story end? It ends with the son attacking the father about how false his belief system was but instead of the father attacking or becoming defensive he replies (summarized)
father to son - I appreciate how much you have learned in school and how independent you have become. When I found faith I was desperate. I was at an all time low. Your Mom and I were about to get divorced and I couldn't find a reason to keep living. I went to the little evangelical church and at first I thought all those people were crazy. They had their arms in the air, they were yelling and they were hugging eachother. Well, I kept going and eventually I realized something. These people all genuinely cared for eachother. I learned about the bible and I learned that it gave me something bigger than me to believe in and a new way to live my life. Your Mom and I worked through our issues and we became closer. What is important about faith is how it finds you and how it helps you.
How great is that for an ending?
What do you think? Literal or not???
I think ... it depends! Different bits of the Bible work with different rules. You wouldn't expect a poem to be literally true, so don't expect poetry in the Bible to be literal either.
ReplyDeleteAs for this particular passage, well, it's kinda complicated! This is history, and we might expect it to be literally true. But that's the sort of history we prize and expect these days.It wasn't always like that. You used to get history that includes miraculous and unlikely happenings without any sense of embarrassment. One of my favourite examples is something called "Bede's history of the English Church and People" There are some amazing miracles in there, as well as some pretty accurate (as far as we know) historical reportage.
How's that for a "yes and no" answer?
Nick - Thank you for comparing it to poetry. That's helpful.
ReplyDelete