The Bible TI251 Fall 2020

In history class, the references to Confederates and anti-abolitionists using the Bible always made me shudder. Why would these people use my religion as a way to justify the torture of an entire race? The Israelites themselves were freed slaves at one point, right? The argument blew my mind, and I didn’t even know yet about the Slave Bible designed to suppress rebellion among unjustly enslaved Americans. 

The reality is that the Bible was, like in many other issues, manipulated to fit a certain value. Cherry-picking and selective hearing runs rampant with these hot-button issues. But the Bible’s view of slavery is much different than American slavery. It never hit me before that slavery wasn’t racially-charged like America, it was mostly a last-ditch effort to pay off debts. This idea reminds me of the child sacrifice topic from Genesis, where desperate times really do call for desperate measures (which vary through cultures and time periods). In the Americanized, revisionist view that pervades Bible study in churches, I sometimes forget to acknowledge these important cultural and historical considerations.

Gale A. Yee, a professor of biblical studies emerita at Episcopal Divinity School proposes the idea that “In order to become prophets ourselves, to critique the unrelenting drive for profits in capitalism and recover the positive ethics of tribal living, we must become educated in the systemic structures of the U.S. economy and of capitalism itself, and then through our God-given gifts, strive to create a more equitable, just society.” I certainly do not agree with this as it deviates from what I believe is the true path outlined by the Church. In her article, she relates King Solomon’s   monarchy to Panem from “The Hunger Games” since it is divided into 12 states with a central body receiving the bulk of the surrounding modes of production. I don’t doubt that the central state in which King Solomon resided received most of the means of production but I think to call the farmers “exploited” falls into a marxist interpretation. Yee focuses on the power dynamics once again to view the Bible through the lens of critical theory, “Its stories of exploitation are usually not discussed in studies that focus on “daily life” in ancient Israel and in seminary classes on the Old Testament.” Once again, I would like to point out that the vast majority of prophets and righteous individuals were peasant class.

Who are the prophets of today? How are these people selected. In class we discussed the idea that many people are a modern versions of prophets. These people are scientist who can help correct the harm done by other people and can help support and guide us through many issues. In addition to Scientist we mentioned politicians. These are people elected to serve the people who elect them. They serve the communities by attempting to improve the lives of people living within them.

In class we talked about a multitude of things regarding monotheism however the thing that struck me as most surprising was when talking about the ten commandments. The exact commandment was  “you shall have no other Gods above me”. What is the meaning of this? Does it propose we can worship other gods but have God almighty still be the most important? or does it mean there are multiple gods and different beliefs. Personally I think this is in reference to God being above all else but people have a right to believe in others. However that is the interpretation today I am not thinking about historical context. Back in ancient Israel there were many religions being practiced and  defining it back then was trickier. This gets into the idea of monotheism. Monotheism is the belief in one god, one religion. This topic of Monotheism eventually led us into the idea of the Trinity. The Holy Trinity is God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People argue that this is not monotheism as it encompasses three things not one God as monotheism requires. However the trinity represents 3 things that make up God and his presence. So I would consider the Trinity to be apart of the monotheistic belief.

When the first commandment is saying that you shall have no other Gods above me, the meaning is that if there are other gods, then don’t let them consume your life over God. I have always interpreted this commandment that the other things that we can worship are the distractions that we encounter in life. It could be your phone, social media, another person, or an object. When in the context of today, these things make sense. However, in the context of ancient Israel, this could mean other gods that people worshipped. As Christianity started forming, a monotheistic religion was forming and moving away from the polytheistic religions that dominated before. Why people believed in multiple gods were to have someone to access explicitly for one reason such as fertility, rain, or harvest. All major things that the ancient people relied on to make a good life for themselves, they had a god for. In the emergence of the prophets speaking of one God that would unite the world through sending his only son down to earth to live, teach, and ultimately die for the sins of all, people were scared, but also hopeful. Under one God, who loves us and cherishes each person for who they are, it can serve as a uniting factor for people. While each person goes through different things, they can rely on a uniting figure to follow and to pray to in their lives.

The Trinity is how I would describe God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one consubstantial and coeternal essence. To get even more complicated, the Orthodox Church believes that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father unlike our Catholic brothers who believe that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is known as the Filioque clause which was added to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed in 1014,  filioque literally means “and the son,” in Latin which did not previously exist in the creed developed in 325 at the first council of Nicaea.

Does the Trinity fit within the typical definitions of monotheism? I would say that there is certainly a fine line between the Trinity and monotheism but a line nonetheless. Since monotheism calls for a singular God, many could interpret the Trinity as being three different modes of a singular God, like a three dimensional object which only truly occupies only one of the three or a combination at any given time. This is known as modalism, simply put it is the disintegration of the hypostatic  (the three divine persons) union of the Trinity, the Trinity has become delaminated. If there was no trinity and it was a singular God, it is at this point which we start to dabble in Monarchianism, the belief that there is a singular God and no division into the three hypostases. The Trinity is not monotheistic or three separate Gods by any means, the Orthodox worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a singular God.

In my blog post I wanted to expand upon the question of what people or people groups are most like prophets today. I have two answers, I shared one answer that suggested politicians and activists are similar as they are moral leaders, who are trying to steer us towards what they perceive as what is morally correct. I would think that this answer is really good if it weren’t for the fact that often times politicians are corrupt and rather than serving the people, like the prophets, they are serving lobbyists, their party, or their own pocket. This is why activists may be a better analogy, as there is less opportunity for profit paired with the fact that prophets were often sent for a specific reason, like how activists usually have a specialty. Another analogy that I came up with is that prophets best shadow superheroes. As superheroes aren’t real I didn’t share in class, but I see even more parallels between them and prophets. They both have strength from higher or supernatural powers (I’m not sure if it’s acceptable to call God supernatural). They also generally have a specific evil that they are targeting, superheroes targeting supervillains and prophets targeting sins/sinners. Finally they both tend to have polarizing views about them in society and have large reputations before and after death.

We talked about monotheism in class today and what it has historically been defined as. From my perspective, I have always known monotheism to be the belief that there is only one God, one divine being. I have never thought what the meaning is past that, but today in class I learned that there could be multiple interpretations of what monotheism could be and whether it is displayed or not in the Bible. A different interpretation would be putting all one’s faith in one God, but believing that there are multiple gods and the one God that someone puts their faith into is supreme compared to the rest of the gods, but this seems to look more like polytheism considering people who think this also think that there are multiple gods. A lot of people derive their belief from the first commandment in the Bible: one must love the Lord our God more than any other Gods, which has also derived many interpretations. Many people take this commandment literally, which gives them a polytheistic belief that there are multiple gods that are not as important as the supreme God. Others dive deeper into the meaning and interpret the ‘other gods’ as idols of the world, like money, fame, success, etc. and still believe that the supreme God in the first commandment is the only god. It is very interesting to see all these different viewpoints and interpretations of the monotheistic belief and how it can be determined in the first commandment.

In class today we talked about if there are modern prophets and the definition of monotheism and its application to the Bible. In my breakout group we named scientist and political activists as modern prophets. Scientists, in a way, bring and interpret the laws of nature and the universe to the people, which is similar to how prophets of the time of the Bible functioned. Political activists like MLK bring social change, and some people listen to the activist, while some reject their ideas for what is already the norm. Prophets either foretell future events for bring about change, so that was the logic of my group during class. The modern definition of monotheism is belief in a singular deity and rejection of the existence of other deities. The first commandment states, “thou shalt have no other gods before me,” implying that the author of the Exodus knows that other gods are worshiped within their culture. I don’t think that Christianity is strictly a monotheistic religion, given that there are angels (even though angel simply means messenger) and the reference to the father, the son, and the holy spirit.

The concept of monotheism relating to the first commandment was very interesting to think about. The Bible shows monotheism, but also monolatry, which is the belief that there may be more than one God, but only one should be worshipped. Is this what the first commandment is saying? You could interpret that the first commandment says that there may be more than one deity, but you should only worship the Lord. Or, it could be saying that there is only one God and no others. Now that I have questioned this, personally I think the commandment is saying that there may be other “Gods” out there, but there is only one true one. These “Gods” may be referring to other deities, or simply things like idols or superficial things. I know that Catholics are criticized for worshiping other people like Mary and the saints. Overall, the term of monolatry was something I’ve never heard before, and I’m going to start looking out for it when reading the Bible.

The Prophets almost give me the vibe of the Justice League or The Avengers. They’re this league of legendary figures with their own cool unique back story. I remember my church drama teacher telling us in approximately fourth grade that the Bible, specifically the book of acts, was like an action movie, and the prophets kind of fit into that narrative.

Another part of the lecture that I found interesting was talking about people not focusing on the afterlife for a long period of the Abrahamic religious timeline. As a person I tend to think about death a lot, I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it’s more people and society in general, but there’s no way that I wouldn’t think about the afterlife because quite frankly it’s scary to me. The afterlife is really the only part of Christianity that I ever struggle with. The morals and teachings of the Bible seem fairly straight forward and integral to life, but conceptualizing the afterlife is where sometimes my faith starts to waiver.