Midwinter ramblings
- Well, it's with no small sense of relief that I managed to get through Deuteronomy this week with my eyeballs intact. Oh, and surprise too, because (with the exception of the early chapters of Genesis which are kind of fun), the first 4 of the Books of Moses mostly left me wanting to stick pins in my eyes. Ugh, just horrible.
Deuteronomy mostly takes the form of a sermon, with the 120 year old Moses addressing the 12 tribes of Israel just before his death and their subsequent crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land and, while God here, much as in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, is portrayed in large part as being petty, vainglorious, arrogant, vindictive, and cruel (and murderous, don't forget murderous. I mean, honestly, the 12 plagues, anyone?), He's less to the forefront here than previously and mostly I found it a fairly interesting narrative of a People at a very specific time and place in their history.
I'm relieved that I'm through the first five books though, I have to say. Echoing
quintus_marcius, I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading the Old Testament to anyone who doesn't have a religious interest in the text, but thus far it's been an educational, occasionally interesting, often infuriating experience. Certainly, I wouldn't have undertaken it without the religious interest, and even with that
I'd generally reject what I've seen of it so far (and bear in mind that that's only 6 books out of 40 odd of the Old Testament) as being far too contradictory, socially irrelevant, and (frankly) vicious to have anything but academic interest. Truthfully, if you're coming at The Bible from a largely Christian perspective, I strongly suspect that you can happily ignore everything but the Gospels and any of the various letters that speak to you (and I'd always recommend the Revelation because it's frankly a classic and rather entertaining).
Of course, I love what I've read of both the Psalms and the Proverbs and, given that Ancient Near Eastern literature had a long history of lamentation texts (The Lament for the Destruction of Ur being a particularly fine example), I'm particularly looking forward to the Lamentations.
If I'm honest, though, my main impetus for reading what is (from the Christian point of view) the longest prologue in history is Jesus' insistence on more than one occasion that He came to 'fulfill the law, not abolish it', and that, along with many, many references back to the OT just makes me want to know the background. Mostly my interpretation of that, though, was that He had to work with the tools at hand. Trying to sweep everything away would have achieved nothing.
- Now though I get to celebrate by embarking on my long-planned full rereading of Harry Potter. Yay \o/
(Last week, it was Thud!, which wasn't Terry Pratchett on top form (something of a disappointment after 'Night Watch', 'Monstrous Regiment', and 'Going Postal') but Pratchett not-on-top-form is still head and shoulders above most writers. He's always been a little variable, but he hits the spot far more often than not and I'm greatly looking to Making Money and Raising Steam especially. Moist von Lipwig is a favourite of mine XD
- Apropos of nothing specific, it will never cease to amaze, disgust, and depress me how relentlessly awful the Tories continue to be. 12 years of New Labour almost had me forgetting. Almost.
I'm in a very safe Labour seat so my vote won't make the slightest difference in 2015, but I'll be there with a stub of pencil and a prayer. Maybe UKIP will split their vote. We can hope.
- It's my brother's 45th birthday today. He got a card from me but with the way I'm feeling right now that's all he can hope for, quite frankly.
- While I rarely (if ever) see Disney films at the cinema, Frozen has been so well received that I'm seriously considering going if I can find a not-ridiculously-early showing, and someone to go with. We shall see.
- I hope you've all managed to avoid as far as possible floods, Arctic vortices, heat waves and all the other extremities of weather that the last few months have thrown at the world. It's been a hard season, wherever in the world you are, I think. Here's hoping spring/autumn is better.
- I guess this needs no explanation. I've always loved it.
- I'm off to see Wicked again in September. Yay!
Which gives me an excuse to post this, which is fabulous.
This entry was originally posted at http:http://prunesquallormd.dreamwidth.org/98018.html. Comment wherever you like :)
Deuteronomy mostly takes the form of a sermon, with the 120 year old Moses addressing the 12 tribes of Israel just before his death and their subsequent crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land and, while God here, much as in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, is portrayed in large part as being petty, vainglorious, arrogant, vindictive, and cruel (and murderous, don't forget murderous. I mean, honestly, the 12 plagues, anyone?), He's less to the forefront here than previously and mostly I found it a fairly interesting narrative of a People at a very specific time and place in their history.
I'm relieved that I'm through the first five books though, I have to say. Echoing
quintus_marcius, I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading the Old Testament to anyone who doesn't have a religious interest in the text, but thus far it's been an educational, occasionally interesting, often infuriating experience. Certainly, I wouldn't have undertaken it without the religious interest, and even with that
I'd generally reject what I've seen of it so far (and bear in mind that that's only 6 books out of 40 odd of the Old Testament) as being far too contradictory, socially irrelevant, and (frankly) vicious to have anything but academic interest. Truthfully, if you're coming at The Bible from a largely Christian perspective, I strongly suspect that you can happily ignore everything but the Gospels and any of the various letters that speak to you (and I'd always recommend the Revelation because it's frankly a classic and rather entertaining).
Of course, I love what I've read of both the Psalms and the Proverbs and, given that Ancient Near Eastern literature had a long history of lamentation texts (The Lament for the Destruction of Ur being a particularly fine example), I'm particularly looking forward to the Lamentations.
If I'm honest, though, my main impetus for reading what is (from the Christian point of view) the longest prologue in history is Jesus' insistence on more than one occasion that He came to 'fulfill the law, not abolish it', and that, along with many, many references back to the OT just makes me want to know the background. Mostly my interpretation of that, though, was that He had to work with the tools at hand. Trying to sweep everything away would have achieved nothing.
- Now though I get to celebrate by embarking on my long-planned full rereading of Harry Potter. Yay \o/
(Last week, it was Thud!, which wasn't Terry Pratchett on top form (something of a disappointment after 'Night Watch', 'Monstrous Regiment', and 'Going Postal') but Pratchett not-on-top-form is still head and shoulders above most writers. He's always been a little variable, but he hits the spot far more often than not and I'm greatly looking to Making Money and Raising Steam especially. Moist von Lipwig is a favourite of mine XD
- Apropos of nothing specific, it will never cease to amaze, disgust, and depress me how relentlessly awful the Tories continue to be. 12 years of New Labour almost had me forgetting. Almost.
I'm in a very safe Labour seat so my vote won't make the slightest difference in 2015, but I'll be there with a stub of pencil and a prayer. Maybe UKIP will split their vote. We can hope.
- It's my brother's 45th birthday today. He got a card from me but with the way I'm feeling right now that's all he can hope for, quite frankly.
- While I rarely (if ever) see Disney films at the cinema, Frozen has been so well received that I'm seriously considering going if I can find a not-ridiculously-early showing, and someone to go with. We shall see.
- I hope you've all managed to avoid as far as possible floods, Arctic vortices, heat waves and all the other extremities of weather that the last few months have thrown at the world. It's been a hard season, wherever in the world you are, I think. Here's hoping spring/autumn is better.
- I guess this needs no explanation. I've always loved it.
Click to view- I'm off to see Wicked again in September. Yay!
Which gives me an excuse to post this, which is fabulous.
This entry was originally posted at http:http://prunesquallormd.dreamwidth.org/98018.html. Comment wherever you like :)