“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
- Matthew 22:37-38
The Bible quotes I use are from the New International Version as found in www.BibleGateway.com.
Jesus is quoting an earlier text: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
- Deuteronomy 6:5
But who or what is God? Is he some big guy in the sky? This is what people of the times believed about God or most other gods they believed in. Now we can see into the “heavens” and all we see are big rocks and burning suns on and on and on.
Or is God a metaphor of all existence.? A God that “sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous”? That is, if we follow the “laws of nature” or take steps to protect ourselves from these laws we can “keep ourselves dry”.
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Matthew 22:39-40, see also Leviticus 19:19
Leviticus is more narrow than Matthew. Leviticus limits “neighbor” to “among your people”. Matthew expands “neighbor” to those outside “your people”, the hated Samaritans.
Rabbi Hillel, who taught from 30BCE to 10CE followed “Love your neighbor as yourself” with “the rest is commentary.” See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/hillel.html.
Research for writing can take one down many unexpected paths. The Jewish Virtual Library has an article on Hillel and his “friendly rival” Shammai. See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hillel.html. What was interesting about this article was that Hillel was often the more liberal and popular of the two whereas Shammai was more conservative with very strict views.
What commentary we have in the Bible. To me it is a source of myth, fable, propaganda, and wisdom.
The myths are the stories that attempt to explain how things came to be, from the creation stories to the Exodus. If Adam and Eve were the first and only people, who did their children marry? The children would have had to commit incest! Compare Genesis 4 with Genesis 5. They seem to be two very different stories.
The fables are stories to illustrate some larger issue. For example, the book of Job examines the problem of bad things happening to good people. A loving, all-powerful God would not put the lives of innocent people in danger just because they were related to one “blameless and upright” man.
The propaganda is justification for deeds that are prohibited elsewhere: “but all the people [the Israelites] put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed.” – Joshua 11:14. And this supposedly is after Moses brought down the Ten Commandments which included “You shall not murder.” – Exodus 20:13
The wisdom abounds. The prime example is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we don’t get along and help each other what kind of tooth and nail society will we have. “… for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Is a drone the modern version of a sword? “You cannot serve both God and money.” We certainly have become a nation that justifies letting money rule while claiming to be a “Christian nation.”
Many of us know “the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the sons, yea unto the seventh generation”. I tried to find a source for this; I found nothing but others quoting it. I guess this is a case of popular editing of the Bible. What I did find was “punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5 and others). It was an admonition to follow the faith being laid down. However, it could equally apply to pollution and global warming. The harm we do to “God’s creation” could punish our children to the third and fourth generation, and beyond!
The greatest problems with the Bible are the selection of what is included, how accurate are the generations of transcriptions and translations, and how much crept in that was a belief of the time. One example is just who went into town after Boaz scooped grain into Ruth’s shawl? Boaz or Ruth? See http://biblehub.com/ruth/3-15.htm for many variations of Ruth 3:15. Did “he” go into town or did “she” go into town?
Does it really matter? What really matters is that we seek a moral compass to help us all achieve a prosperous and just world.
M. Imran Hayee, a regular Local View contributor to the Duluth News Tribune, wrote that he considers the United States an Islamic nation: “Freedom, cleanliness make US the world’s most Islamic nation”, Dec. 8, 2013 (http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/285407/publisher_ID/36/). He differentiates between Muslim countries where the majority consider themselves Muslims and Islamic countries where most Islamic values prevail. He considers the Islamic values in the U.S. as cleanliness, charitable giving, and religious freedom.
Now if we could only have a Christian nation too; one where we “do unto other [nations] as we would have them do unto” us.
Also posted on the Reader Weekly website at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/12/19/2635_party_of_one-9.
