God and theatre

So my last post was very short. Here is a view of more detail. The lyrics for the Bernstein Mass are here Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  It bears some study. They reveal all the contradictions in our thoughts - quite a remarkable achievement in my opinion.

Too much to do recently - so no time for posting. 

In the beginning was ...
and the word was Torah

Torah is from irh, throwing the grappling hook against the wall of time and seeing what it pulls back into our consciousness and what we can bootstrap ourselves into when it catches a useful hold.

Note the use of the verb to throw or shoot.

Notice how close the root irh is to ira (fear).

Bart Ehrman goes on and on about punishment in the OT. He is so well educated. How can he write with such a tiresome motif? Deuteronomy 28 is directly contradicted by the book of Job - or at least attenuated with respect to its intent - so the contracts described in Deuteronomy do not reflect the character of the OT God. Rather that character Job successfully appeals against a trivialized view of God. And as for 'the ban of utter destruction' - obviously there is present day perspective on such tribalism, but it too does not reflect God's character. (Except in the radical death required from us all, and symbolized in the rite of circumcision, an antitype of the cross.)

Also - to repeat, there is no distinct word for punish in the Hebrew canon. English translators have made up out of their own culture the idea that God can be blamed for the human desire for domination and power.

Mind you - God does not need my defense, nor is Ehrman wrong in describing what people think about the OT. What you think is what you get. That's hardly an argument in favour of our thinking or our actions.