9 Days left to suggest carnival components

Carnival is scheduled. But only two persons have suggested posts. Not to worry, I have already found 231 links...  And more to come.

I find it strange how I draw the line. For I have looked at -what - 100 posts a day - that's 2200 this month.

What distinguished the 231 from the 2200? Where are the other 90%?

November, Movember, was a busy month - so many elections, and selections, and failures in various issues of polity. But these - if there were posts - I did not find them or they did not qualify (in this redactor's eyes) as related to Biblical Studies. Not that they could not have - where are the posts on selecting and leaders? Is there nothing in the ancient history that would inform us about election? Is there nothing that informs some about polity but that should not have informed decisions today? Is there nothing on closed-door selection committees? And how would one phrase these without special-pleading? - though a dose of special-pleading is always welcome in a carnival.

So - posters - apply the Bible you know so well to the day's events - let's see if they qualify as BS.

in the meanwhile, for my friends to the south

Happy Thanksgiving.

October Carnival is available

Carnival (per wiki) is a festival preceding Lent.  But we precede in November, that other penitential season, Advent. And we are preceded in turn by the October Biblical Studies carnival which is now available. Our penitence may continue but there is celebration also.

As noted on the right

The November 2012 Carnival will be here -let me know of your favorite Biblical Studies posts at dustcarnival at gmail.

I am preparing daily - but I will miss things - so please promote your favorite posts, yours or others.

Book Announcement

Friends, a most exciting day. My catalog page is now available at Energion Publishing.

Seeing the Psalter
Release date Jan 18, 2013
Click to order

525 pages and ready to be read,

ready to stimulate the questioning mind about language, poetry, drama, coherence, story, translation, and life in this part of the conversation we have with ancient authors, musicians, poets, and cultures,

Bob at home, picture taken by Diana
Tapestry by Wm Morris
The Tree of Life

and ready to support a reading of the psalms that opens up possibilities for transformation.

If you look under authors, you will find me too.

Please take a look - and you can order the book. There's a 30% discount for orders placed until December 2, via Energion Direct - and free shipping for Canada and the US. With a release date of January 2013, it could even be a late Christmas present for someone.

I am really excited about this.

Theology and Music

I remember being surprised when I discovered the priest at the church in Patmos was also the choirmaster. He looked at me, a complete stranger, when I appeared at choir practice, introduced by the hotelier from Chicago, the owner of the hotel where we were staying on that small Greek island in the off-season, February 1997. And he said two words "maggiore, minore"? And I replied with major and minor thirds. I was younger then and I could sing them without wobbling. And he said - "You - sit here!" and directed me to a place beside him where I could receive instruction. I sat through the entire session, watching the others tape the whole rehearsal so they could learn it at home. The priest had not had someone there who could sing and hold the drone - so that was a good job for me, for I could neither read Greek nor read their strange chironomic notation above the text.

But there it is - all Orthodox priests have to be musicians. They continue the liturgical empire. Well - and so do the Anglicans. I have a couple of new projects starting - who knows how long they will take? But I have interested production staff, performers, composers, and arrangers here and all have now been introduced to the performing of the music of the Bible as deciphered by Suzanne Haik Vantoura.

What does music do to our reading?  I read with a slightly more constrained meaning. I hear what might not have been obvious. Yet it is too early for me to be sure. There is much I have not sung. But maybe the melodies even of difficult parts will surprise me as did the melody for Deuteronomy 8 which left me considering the tenderness of God's spokesperson, Moses.  In this passage, keeping 'the law' is phrased in the recognition of the distance which separates the rich from the needy. I.e., when the needy get rich, they tend to forget God. And God is wounded, ... The music says that. It is not the least bit threatening.

So below is a sample of the possibility of reading the Bible as music. Even when you are sitting down and reading it by yourself.  What if you sang it out loud instead of reading it silently?

Audio source here

This is David's lament over the death of Absalom - performed imperfectly at sight by me at an experimental discussion among team members. I am very grateful for my fellow performer, baritone Richard Bailey, who is also a fine recording technician. Technique will not cover up my ancient wobble - but you will get the point.

And here is the text with annotations - observe the accents (not the vowels) under the letters (the scale) and over the letters (the ornaments).

וַיִּרְגַּ֣ז הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ
begin on E, rise a fifth on the munah, dip on the revia
וַיַּ֛עַל עַל־עֲלִיַּ֥ת הַשַּׁ֖עַר וַיֵּ֑בְךְּ
continue on the B then down a major 6th to D (tevir) then up a minor third to F natural (merkha),  rise to the G# (tifcha) and come to rest on the atenach (A). It, like the text, is an upward progression.
וְכֹ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר בְּלֶכְתּ֗וֹ
continue on the A and rise immediately to the B (another munah) and continue, dip on the revia and leave it unresolved.
בְּנִ֤י אַבְשָׁלוֹם֙ בְּנִ֣י בְנִ֣י אַבְשָׁל֔וֹם

return to the B (resolving the revia) and rise to the C (mapach), continue to the last syllable of Absalom and observe the qadma - a 2 note ornament up a tone, back to C then B (munah) observing the 2 note ornament down (zaqef qatan) again on the third syllable of Absalom.
מִֽי־יִתֵּ֤ן מוּתִי֙ אֲנִ֣י תַחְתֶּ֔יךָ
return to the tonic, then up a minor sixth to observe the mapach. Note how the shape of this line exactly repeats the shape of the prior line with qadma-munah-zaqef.
אַבְשָׁל֖וֹם בְּנִ֥י בְנִֽי׃
finally, from the B down a minor third to G# (tifcha), then down the minor third to F natural (merkha) and finally home on the tonic (silluq).

Preparing a carnival

A monthly carnival is a large task. (I am running about 2 hours a day on this one so far.) It is also a learning task. (The variety of material exposes one to several thought streams.)  It is also a searching task - click after click - a good tree bears good fruit.

How many of these posts are really carnival material? What judgment do I make?  Some blogs are not on my regular reader (and some who were not are now on). Some posts seem good on the day they are read and then - something goes sideways and they seem less than interesting. That doesn't mean I fail to include posts I disagree with - just posts I find don't hold up to a rather cloudy vision of what I think is 'interesting'.

Ever tried to define what is 'interesting'?

One - it does not contain offensive ads. (Maybe)
Two - there's an element of beauty. (Equally difficult to define - like Quality in Zen and the Art of Motor-cycle Maintenance.)
Three - related to One - there is no direct commercial motive and its corollary - no pay wall.
Four - it is relevant to something related to the Bible - even one word is enough sometimes.
Five - a clear reference to sources is a good sign.
Six - a stretching of the intellectual muscle is good.
Seven -  an indication or two that the writer is also thinking.

What thoughts do you have on the carnival(s)? What criteria would you apply?

Email your desired posts for this month to dustcarnival at gmail dot com. And put a comment below or in the email if you have thoughts on criteria for selection of posts for a Biblical Studies carnival.

It is 1/5th of the way through this month - and already I have drafted four foot-long pages of posts. I may have to split this into two carnivals. But I can't do this till the last month's carnival is out. [It's out! Yea!]

Biblical Studies Carnivals

O silence, O my heart, O my hope

How difficult it is to think clearly and not be glib after such a great swath of destruction. We have seen so many destructions recently -

• Indonesia - where a friend of mine was and one of whose scholars I recently met at UVic, 
• New Orleans, where my son played in the symphony, 
• Japan, whose debris now washes against our Pacific shores, and now 
• New York in darkness - where my daughter conducts at St Thomas's 5th avenue every second summer and a city which we fell in love with and have visited so frequently these past 6 years, a city where my son grew his violin playing and where my son-in-law took us to the vegetarian restaurant and to hear the jazz in the park in Greenwich Village.

As have many of you, my wife and I walked the entire length of the High Line and more - all along that devastated coast, round about and throughout ground-zero.

And I study the Bible.

What for?

I wait in silence ...
I search for a word ...
Not the one I was searching for: Psalm 27

for he will treasure me in a booth

in a day of evil he will hide me in the secret of his tent

...

what if I had not believed I would see the goodness of יהוה

in the land of the living?

Psalm 29 too is about destruction - the natural order. Destruction followed for Jerusalem too and still they sang and they waited. The Lord sits in this deluge also.

Psalm 48 was what I was searching for

We are in the likeness O God of your loving-kindness

within your temple

I wait with patience too for the carnival from the prior month. Who can write 'carnival' in such a state!

Still we will sing and still we will wait - in that likeness.

The November Biblical Studies Carnival will be hosted here.  I am constructing the carnival as the month progresses. During the month, as you read or write posts, please send your suggestions to dustcarnival at gmail dot com.

It may be a somber carnival.

Quomodo sedit sola civitas

Lamentations 1:1

Aleph	אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם הָיְתָה כְּאַלְמָנָה רַבָּתִי בַגֹּויִם שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינֹות הָיְתָה לָמַס ס	Ah how solitary sits the city Filled with people she became as a widow Filled from the nations Princess among the provinces she came into forced service

Image HT Exploring our Matrix here.