There is an ancient Jewish parable that speaks of a heated discussion taking place in a park between two old and learned Rabbi’s. The conversation in question revolves around a particularly complex and obscure verse in the Torah. It is not the first time that these two intellectual giants have crossed swords over this difficult verse, in fact they have debated it for years, sometimes developing their opinions and changing their minds, but never finding a consensus. While a day is like a thousand years in heaven God begins to tire of the endless discussion. Finally God decides to visit the two men and tell them once and for all what the verses actually mean. God reaches down, pulls the clouds apart and begins to speak, ‘you have been debating this passage endlessly for years, I will now tell you what it means…’, but before God can continue the two Rabbi’s look up and say, in a rare moment of unity, ‘who are you to tell us what the verse means? You have given us the words and your job is done, now leave us in peace to debate it’.
This parable sounds like the ultimate example of what biblical hermeneutics is not about, for surely what we are seeking when we read the bible is a God’s eye view. Indeed, is it not the case that a Spirit-led biblical hermeneutics results in us receiving a God’s eye view. Rather than telling God to butt out these Rabbi’s should have, from the very beginning, prayed together and sought divine illumination concerning the text rather than sitting around and arguing about it.
Yet this parable opens up an ancient approach to biblical hermeneutics, one which not only acknowledges that hermeneutics is, well, hermeneutics (i.e. an interpretation), but which also claims that hermeneutics is all we would ever want anyway. In other words, even if it were possible to get a God’s-eye view it would be most unwelcome. For perhaps what is more important when reading the bible is the debate, the multiple play of interpretations, the challenges it holds and the power it possesses to transform our lives. In other words, perhaps the truth of the bible is not some propositional affair which can be handed down from above like a magisterial dictate. Just maybe the truth which the bible contains is not some mere objective epistemological system which can be affirmed or denied by the mind any more than the source of religious truth is able to be objectified via an epistemological system.
If the bible were about communicating propositional facts then we would have to ask why God doesn’t just rip apart the heavens in a Hollywood style manner and tell us what to believe. Would this great revelation not make orthodox believers of us all?
How many atheists, agnostics and heretics would we have in the world if God backed up the frantic work of apologists with a personal appearance, broadcast around the world in full colour and stereo sound? But, while people might drop down to their knees in wonder, would people be changed? And if they were, would they be changed because of an inner seduction or because of the external spectacle? Indeed, how long would it take before the site of God’s revelation become an attraction for tourists greedy for pictures and a story to bring home? How quickly would market sellers set up stalls selling figurines depicting the event and bootlegged recordings of the words – spoken in English no doubt.
In the parable above the point is not to discover the ‘right answer’ but rather to engage in the dialogue itself. Not to hold some correct understanding, but to be changed. This is further evidenced in the story of a young man who is eager to learn Jewish logic. He is young and bright but a little arrogant and so thinks nothing of approaching the most well known Rabbi in the city.
When he arrives at his door he says to the Rabbi, ‘I have come here that you may teach me the secret truths of the Jewish faith. While young I have studied greatly and have already mastered Aristotelian logic and symbolic logic. As such I know that I am in the right place to learn the logical forms of Judaism’.
But the Rabbi simply laughed and replied, ‘go home and come back in a few years’.
But the young man continued to pester the Rabbi, saying ‘just give me a test to show you how clever I am’
So the Rabbi, in exasperation, said, ‘OK, answer me this. Two men go down a chimney, at the bottom one of the men has a face covered in soot, which man turns to wash his face’
Immediately the young man replied, ‘why the man with the dirty face’
At this the Rabbi began to turn around saying, ‘no, no the man with the clean face washed for he saw that his friend had a dirty face and so thought that he must also by covered in dirt and thus washed’
‘Please, test me again’ replied the young man
‘OK’ said the Rabbi, ‘Two men go down a chimney, at the bottom one of the men has a face covered in soot, which man turns to wash his face’
The young man is confused but reply’s ‘why the man with the clean face’
But the Rabbi simply roles his eyes and says ‘no, no. It is the man with the dirty face, he sees the reaction of his friend and realises that he must be covered in soot’
‘Please test me once more’ replied the young man ‘for now I know’
Once more the Rabbi said ‘Two men go down a chimney, at the bottom one of the men has a face covered in soot, which man turns to wash his face’
‘The answer I said first, but for a different reason’ said the young man
‘No’ replied the rabbi, ‘ they both washed their face, for how could either of them think that they could have descended a chimney without getting dirty. Now go home and come back when you understand’
Posted at 01:52 |
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Comments:
Pete this is so apropos to the debate looming sand splitting the Episcopal church here in the USA over the homosexual issue. i think the hermeneutic on the scriptures used to condemn gay people are taken way out of context. When you said, "For perhaps what is more important when reading the bible is the debate, the multiple play of interpretations, the challenges it holds and the power it possesses to transform our lives. In other words, perhaps the truth of the bible is not some propositional affair which can be handed down from above like a magisterial dictate. Just maybe the truth which the bible contains is not some mere objective epistemological system which can be affirmed or denied by the mind any more than the source of religious truth is able to be objectified via an epistemological system.", this really resonated with me and the point i am in my personal journey wit GOD and faith. Thank you for this timely piece! Adele
Posted by: Existential Punk
on 12/01/07 at 04:08
I think the comment you made about it being an interpretation was very important as well. Trevor Dennis wrote in one of his books about how meaning is not so much found as it is created... the same verse/narrative may in fact have many meanings. I'm not sure of the source for this, but it is my understand as well that the Rabbi's used to speak of the Bible as being like a precious gem... as you turned it (looked at it from different angles/perspectives) you saw different meanings in it, much like light refracts through a crystal.
Posted by: emma
on 13/01/07 at 01:51
Emma, i love your image of the Bible being like a precious gem that you bring up. i think i have heard Pete speak of this before. What a gorgeous metaphor. Thanks for the reminder! Adele
Posted by: Existential Punk
on 13/01/07 at 05:08
Wow. And Hm . I think that's the only response one can really have to that second parable.
In response to the first parable--to the question "Why is God so elusive? Is there something we should be 'getting' in the process here, and not just looking for bald 'answers'?"--I'd highly recommend anyone reading Richard Elliot Friedman's The Hidden Face of God . In it Friedman, a Jewish scholar and (I think) mystic, traces the progressive hiddenness of YHWH throughout the Hebrew Bible, with a corresponding increase in human response-ability.
From there he traces several possible hermeneutic responses to this apparent vanishing of God--including Christian, Kabbalah, and "death of God" theology--culminating in a re-discovery of God's presence among people, but in a transformed way. I'm about a third of the way through it and loving it. Absolutely gripping.
Posted by: Mike Morrell
on 13/01/07 at 16:21
Ah, I see that my previous posting is stripped of its HTML formatting--and given weird spacing, to boot! Ah well. The URL for the book is in the "name" of this comment.
Posted by: Deus Obscura
on 13/01/07 at 16:23
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