Walking The Bible Faith and Reason in Feiler's - Or The Old Testament Without Fear!
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Faith and Reason in Feiler’s
Walking The Bible
Or
The Old Testament Without Fear!
Part one:
The Journeys
of Abraham
Faith and Reason in Feiler’s Walking The Bible Introduction I have been asked to pause our discussion of The Gospels and present a review of the recent Television series entitled “Walking The Bible.”
Faith and Reason in Feiler’s Walking The Bible Introduction Thjis is a team effort, so I would like to introduce my colleagues, Anne Zobel and Patty Braidwood, who have helped me organize the presentation. It is a mixed media affair, so please be patient as we switch between powerpoint and DVD. The presentations can be downloaded from All Saints Website.
Walking The Bible
Bruce Feiler
In this series Bruce Feiler, a popular author, seeks a deeper understanding
of the first five books of the Old Testament, traditionally referred to as the Five
Books Of Moses. His approach ios to retrace their narratives on location in Turkey,
Syria, Egypt, and Israel.
Walking The Bible Biblical Landscapes I am going to show you selections from the series, and I think that you are going to agree with Feiler that experiencing these landscapes and seeing its peoples leads to a deeper appreciation of the Bible stories. As a geologist, landscapes are very important to me. Feiler’s photography ranges from good to magnificent, and his commentary firmly seats the bibles stories in their locales. But there is a problem, and we need to set some ground rules before starting the DVD.
The Childhood of our Faith
Why is The Old
Testament so violent?
Feiler is less successful in
dealing with an aspect of the
early Old Testament that
troubles many Christians. Why
is it so violent? Is Christian
behavior being displayed here?
Because its lack of attention
to this problem this problem, the
series has been described,
perhaps unfairly, as “Bible Light” The Flood
Some people simply refuse to read the Old Testament because of these concerns.
Others respond to this “cognitive dissonance problem” by finding excuses, or by
simply ignoring the “elephant in the room.”
The Childhood of
our Faith
The Old
Testament as
Myth
Neither approach is necessary. The early Old Testament records the childhood
of our faith, and should be appreciated as such. All primitive societies have
told stories that explain where their people come from, how people should
behave, and how they relate to the divine forces that control our fate. Here for
instance is Moses encountering the bBurning Bush. Students of literature refer
to these stories as myths, a term which unfortunately, is seriously
misunderstood.
The Childhood of our Faith
Myths express
spiritual truths
Myths are not simply falsehoods. The
traditional stories typically have
historical cores. But they are not being
told as history. They are being told to
express spiritual truths, and history is
being put in service of this goal.
Such stories may be spiritually true,
whether they happened as reported or
not. If they illustrate spiritual values but
didn’t happen as reported, they are
called allegories. Myths are typically a
mixture of allegory and oral history.
The “rainbow promise” sealed God’s covenant, and ended
the first great cycle of Salvation History
The Childhood of our Faith
Salvation History
Myths have immense power to illustrate
complex ideas and concepts in ways
that are easily digestible and tangible to
its viewers, readers, or listeners.
The myths of the Old testament
underpin the fundamental structure of
the Bible. The Old testament and the
New Testament have been stitched
together in a repeating pattern called
Salvation History, whereby mankind is
established by God (creation), suffers a
fall (sin), followed by a renewal of God’s
covenant (redemption)
The “rainbow promise” sealed God’s covenant, and , and
ends the first great cycle of Salvation History
Archaeology and Biblical History
Bruce Feiler’s sidekicks
Gabriel Barkay Received
PhD in Archaeology from
Tel Aviv University in 1985.
Feiler introduces us to several veteran archeologists.
Archaeology is an important tool for understanding the
Avner Goren for 15 Old Testament But it is a coarse-grained tool In terms of
years served as Chief its resolving power. It needs to be used in conjunction
Archeologist in the the techniques employed by biblical historians. Feiler’s
Sinai Peninsula story would have benefited from doing so.Archaeology and Biblical History textural analysis Understanding of the Books of Moses is made more complicated by their complex origin. Separate oral traditions have been, edited, re-edited, and blended at successively later times before the final Compilation which occurred at least 700 years later than the events described. During this evolution, the books of Moses were revised to meet the needs of a later, more complex society, and earliest books received the most revision. Thus we find embedded in Genesis and Exodus a number of portraits of personalities, and stories of their adventures, that have been reshaped for allegorical purposes often with considerable literary skill.
The Childhood of our Faith Allegory in The Old Testament We should value the Allegorical passages in the Old Testament for the message that they carry, just as we value the plays of Sophocles, or Shakespeare, which also also offer spiritual truths. It’s OKAY to enjoy the old Testament stories! And their allegorical nature doesn’t make us any less able to find God in them. Realization of the varying historical content of the Bible can initially be dismaying. But for many of us, the resulting clarity leads to a stronger faith. And as for the violence in the Old Testament, remember that it is is the collective memory of a society emerging from tribalism. We are going to have to cut it some slack.
Journeys of Abraham
The Patriarchs
Since the Walking the Bible
series lasts for several hours,
we will focus on the two core
episodes of the series; the
Journeys of Abraham and the
Exodus of Moses
Abraham lived in the patriarchal
period, between 1,600 and 1,200
BCE. The Patriarchs are
portrayed in Genesis as semi-
nomadic pastoralists, who
wander on the fringes of settled
areas, rather like modern
bedouins.Abraham, Moses and the Conquest Of Canaan The JourneYS of Abraham The First Leg of Abram’s Journey (he wasn’t Abraham yet) was lead By his father Terah, who took his family from the Sumerian City of Ur to Haran (1), in northern Mesopotamia. But God told Abram to go on to a land that he, God, would show him, so Abram took his wife, Sarai (she was not yet Sarah) and his nephew, Lot, and went on a second journey, south to Canaan (2). Later, Abram flees to Egypt (3, and 4) during a famine, then returns to Canaan, where God tests him by asking for the sacrifice of his son, Isaac(5).
The Journeys of Abraham Hearing Ancient Voices The richness of the early biblical stories come from the pervasive backdrop of real history that they contain. I am touched by the recent insight of a biblical historian: “folk materials embedded in Genesis, when analyzed critically and individually, allow us to hear ancient voices, other than those of the compilers.” Here we see Terah, Abram’s father, leading his clan on the journey from Ur to Haran. A young Abram (with staff on shoulder) takes his place beside his father and other family elders. The Abraham Story, as finally assembled, has also been designed to illustrate salvation history, but the story in its details clearly reflects the patriarchal period. And as Genesis continues to describe Abraham’s sojourn in Canaan, we are indeed hearing “ancient voices.”
The Journeys of Abraham
The Judean hill Country
(Jacob Stories)
Abraham Stories
Isaac Stories
Acgtually, Phase 1, the Journey from Ur to
Haran, is thought to be a late addition to the
Abraham narrative, added during or after the
Babylonian captivity, but the association of
stories of the patriarchs with The Judean hill
Country is very ancient.The Journeys of Abraham
The Patriarchs
The Stories of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, are
believed by biblical scholars to
have at their core very old,
genuine, and separate
traditions of the ancestors of
the clans around which the
Israelite tribes formed.
There is a hidden story here,
that we will discuss next
Sunday. God (with headband) and his two Elohim visit Abraham
by the Oak of Mamre, near HebronArchaeology and Biblical History
Bruce Feiler’s sidekicks
.
As Bruce Feiler and Avner Goren stroll through the ruins of
Haran, They debate Abram’s travels, but show little interest
in the interplay of allegory and oral history.Archaeology and Biblical History
Bruce Feiler’s sidekicks
Gabriel Barkay received
PhD in Archaeology from
Tel Aviv University in 1985.
Feiler and Goren are joined by Barcay, and Feiler finally comes to life over the historic
content of the Abraham Story. Barcay is defensive when asked by Feiler about the
issue, reflecting ongoing controversy about the reliability of the Biblical account. Note
rhat in his response, Barcay confuses Myth with allegory. In this talk, I take a
moderate view of the historical content of the story, less conservative than Barcay’s,
but more in keeping with modern opinion. The Abraham narrative is a real memory of
Israelite origins, restructured in terms of Salvation History.You can also read
