1 Chronicles

I don't understand why books like these are in the bible while legitimately entertaining and educational books like Susanna don't make the cut. Oh well.

Chronicles is more or less a history book full of lists and records.

First Chronicles, and most of second chronicles honestly, are basically all of the information found in Samuel and Kings only with a P spin. The first nine chapters of Chronicles is nothing but lists and geneologies, with a brief outline of David's rise to power following.

Solomon

David eventually grew old and died, leaving Israel without the greatest king it had ever seen. After alot of scandal and soap opera situations, Solomon becomes king.

The general perception of King Solomon is that he was the wisest man in the world, who appreciated logic, justice, and not having to cut babies in half. However, if you go further in the reading of Solomons life you find that even the wisest of men can be corrupted by wealth, and can lead to the destruction of the land they lead with such wisdom.

Solomon's reign began innocently enough; he gained respect as a wise and just ruler, and began to make some money off of it, and built a temple. This was no ordinary temple either, it was elaborate with a sturdy foundation, gold candlesticks and beautifully decorated walls. It even housed the Ark of the Covenant. Solomon prayed that God would be with him, which God agreed to...if Solomon followed the commandments. (Definite foreshadowing)

People started giving Solomon more and more gifts; be it the Pharaoh giving him his daughter, of the Queen of Sheba giving him enough gold that he made a navy with it. As time went on Solomon loved and "knew" many women, and had numerous wives and concubines, and under their influence began to worship other gods. (Those darn women, always leading men astray...)
God told Solomon that he would take the kingdom away from him for not keeping his end of their deal on obeying God's commandments and when Solomon died, the kingdom became divided into two parts, leading to all kinds of trouble later on.

I suppose the moral of this story is to be weary of wealth, or at least what comes with it. One cannot rely on one's wisdom alone to guide them in life because they are only human, and need to rely on God to keep them on the right path. If Solomon had kept the commandments, he would not have been blinded by his wealth, causing him to lose everything he built. At least, that's what I interpret it as.

Absalom Absalom

Ok, so my musical blogs are probably getting old, but this one is just too perfect.
I've made it as far as Samuel in the bible, and the story I have been thinking about this week was actually mentioned in class today, prompting me to share this song with you: http://www.archive.org/details/EricWhitacreWhenDavidHeard

Eric Whitacre is one of my favorite composers and I've played numerous pieces of his during my years as a band geek . The song is called When David Heard and it is a choral piece based on
2 Samuel 18:33

"When David heard that Absalom was slain He went up into his chamber over the gate and wept, and thus he said: my son, my son, O Absalom my son, would God I had died for thee!"

This story and song are the very essence of grief and suffering. I am a firm believer that in order to really succeed in being an effective storyteller you have to find a way to make yourself and your audience feel the emotions you wish to convey, whether through the use of a grown man weeping for his son or the haunting voices of a choir. That is exactly what Whitacre and Samuel do.

wherever you go, I will go.

So I've made it to Ruth.
I like this story because of the loyalty shared among women when women are so often depicted as deceitful and manipulative in the bible.
Long story short, a woman named Naomi has two sons that both married Moabites but then died. She told her daughter-in-laws that they can return to their homeland, since they really have no reason to stay anymore, and the other one (Orpah) does, but Ruth stays to help Naomi: "For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and be buried."
It turns out Naomi had a rich relative on her husband's side (Boaz), who heard about Ruth's loyalty to her mother-in-law Naomi, and in turn ensured that she would be safe while she worked in the fields. When Ruth tells Naomi about Boaz, she concocts a plan to set Ruth up with him to produce an heir in the stead of her dead son Ruth's husband. Ruth does as she's told, and Boaz ends up marrying her and acquiring the land that belonged to her husband.

You would think this soap opera would be an allegory for loyalty and taking care of your family, and it is in a way, but at the end P steps in and turns it into a lesson on David's family tree.

Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed who has a son named Jesse, who is the father of David.

It is interesting to see such a mixture of authors and writing styles within a single story. While the tale of Ruth and Naomi is unified and constructed like a myth, the lineage of David is a tell tale P list. I prefer the story.

Susanna & Peter at the Clavier

I had never heard of the book of Susanna until today but having looked it up, I don't understand why it isn't included in the bible, its a great story. Well, maybe I do.

Instead of using a woman as a metaphor for infidelity, Susanna is an honest, God-fearing woman, raised by righteous parents, who is falsely accused of a sexually scandalous crime. It is instead the elders that are perverted, conflicting perhaps with the public view of men in such positions. Other than that, it's a great story. It's like a John Grisham courtroom drama the way Daniel interrogates the elders. I also liked the fact that he found them guilty with legitimate evidence rather than knee-jerk assumptions or arbitrary leviticusesque laws.

As for the Wallace poem, its as if he is narrating the thoughts of both Susanna and the peeping Tom elders, relating their emotions to music. Susanna's are a calm melody and recollections of love, while the elders are a driving, throbbing beat urging them to act on their lust.

The final stanza speaks of irony and the nature of beauty. While Susanna was beautiful and tempted the elders, her beauty was impermanent. The story of the elders' dishonesty and perversion will live on forever. All because they couldn't leave her alone.

Lift a Joyful Noise.

The bible's influence on music that we talked about today in class made me think of one of my favorite bands, mewithoutyou. Just as the bible uses metaphors and myths to record history or teach a lesson, mewithoutyou often incorporates brief allusions to biblical stories that act as metaphors for their modern lives.

The song that came to mind was In a Sweater Poorly Knit:
"in a sweater poorly knit and an unsuspecting smile little moses drifts downstream in the Nile a fumbling reply, an awkward rigid laugh I'm carried helpless by my floating basket raft..."

Other bible allusions on this album include:
"Daniel broke the king's decree,Peter stepped from the ship to the sea there was hope for Job like a cut down tree,I hope that there's such hope for me..." (Sun and Moon)

Lost in Translation

While visiting Great Falls this past weekend I attended a church that was drastically different from my own, we'll call it field research. (By the way I don't mean to sound critical if you go to a church like this I just felt awkward.)
Like any contemporary church this one had both a worship band complete with drum set and electric keyboard and a large projector screen. During the sermon, the speaker (I'm not sure what to call him. A minister? certainly not a preacher.) Quoted both the NLV and NIV of the bible coupled with a powerpoint. As I do in our Bible as Lit class, I used my King James Version of the bible and couldn't help but think about the Age of Men, moreso the Age of Chaos. This Bible they used was so informal, so close to modern day language that I no longer felt like I was reading a sacred text, but a dentist office magazine. Is this a tool to make religion more accessible to the masses or is this the degeneration of language?
Two people were baptized that day and communion was taken by the congregation, both without the reading of scripture as I was raised with. It seems that the Bible has had more influence on literature as our curriculum suggests than it has had on modern day religion.