RE: Have you read the good book?
March 9, 2017 at 1:35 pm
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2017 at 1:37 pm by Crossless2.0.)
In response to the OP, yes.
There are several books in the Bible I love: Genesis (easily my favorite despite its often obviously mythical character and frequent barbarity / Esau's embrace of the treacherous Jacob never fails to move me and the Joseph story is wonderful); Exodus (a ripping good yarn whether I believe it really happened or not); parts of Isaiah; Amos; Lamentations; Ruth; Jonah; Job; Ecclesiastes (probably my second-favorite book in the Bible); Proverbs (in a "if Polonius had written a book of the Bible" sort of way); Kings/Chronicles; "Mark's" gospel; The Book of James (maybe the closest we can get to what the original Jesus community was about); and Revelation (an amazing literary high-wire act of sheer exhilarating lunacy).
Of course, there are parts of the Bible -- specifically those dealing with ritual law and those seemingly interminable genealogies that are the reading equivalent of being lowered face-first into a vat of chloroform. And Paul? Few major authors bore the shit out of me like he does, though there are a handful of isolated passages in his letters that are quite beautiful.
There are several books in the Bible I love: Genesis (easily my favorite despite its often obviously mythical character and frequent barbarity / Esau's embrace of the treacherous Jacob never fails to move me and the Joseph story is wonderful); Exodus (a ripping good yarn whether I believe it really happened or not); parts of Isaiah; Amos; Lamentations; Ruth; Jonah; Job; Ecclesiastes (probably my second-favorite book in the Bible); Proverbs (in a "if Polonius had written a book of the Bible" sort of way); Kings/Chronicles; "Mark's" gospel; The Book of James (maybe the closest we can get to what the original Jesus community was about); and Revelation (an amazing literary high-wire act of sheer exhilarating lunacy).
Of course, there are parts of the Bible -- specifically those dealing with ritual law and those seemingly interminable genealogies that are the reading equivalent of being lowered face-first into a vat of chloroform. And Paul? Few major authors bore the shit out of me like he does, though there are a handful of isolated passages in his letters that are quite beautiful.