The Bible
 

My most recent poem originally began with the lines "Let's not talk about the ancient gods / and all that crap". The line didn't last long. I've been doing some soul-searching. I realised that a lot of my dislike of biblical (and to a lesser extent classical) references in poetry is my own issue and is probably just down to chippiness. Not all, but some of it. I was never taught that stuff, certainly not the Classics and, despite a Catholic education, not much reading of the actual Bible seemed to happen either. Lots of hymns and incense. Then I became an insufferable atheist in my teens and dismissed the whole thing. I still am, though I try to be less insufferable.

But I've been reading some big old books recently, probably as a panic-response to turning 50, and I reckon if I can do Proust, Ulysses and The Odyssey I can tackle the big one. And I also realised, in following the discussion on Glenn's recent Abraham and Isaac poem, that I barely know anything beyond the Illustrated Comics/Cecil B DeMille version of even the most famous stories. So, I'm going to read The Bible. For profit and pleasure, hopefully both, possibly neither. King James version, Everyman Edition. The whole thing, Old and New. (I've read most of Genesis before and Matthew's Gospel all the way through a couple of times). The first bit of the Good Book is definitely good. Of course, I knew this bit...

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.


I mean, that's incredible.

I literally just started ten minutes ago.

So, my questions/general talking points are: who here has actually read this thing cover to cover? (be honest) If so, why? If not, why not and will you ever? What are the best bits? Where will I struggle and wish the Lord to smite me down?

And anything else really.

I read it years and years ago. I was a teenage flirting with joining the cult. Recently though I’ve in one of my obsessive learning periods with the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. I’m not reading it cover and probably won’t. Revelations, for example. It shouldn’t have been included imo. It’s about hating the Romans after the destruction of the temple in 70 ce. Most of my reading and reading about the Hebrew Bible with secondary sources is focused on the Pentateuch and Isaiah. Well, I do spend time with poor old Saul that ambitious maybe sociopathic David.

There is a man on YouTube named Dan McClellan who has a doctorate in the Hebrew Bible from Oxford who is great at helping navigate it. There are other scholars if you’re interested.

I used The New Oxford Annotated Bible. It has fascinating notes and introductions to each book. It also has the Apocrypha, the books leftout. I also spend some time with the so-called Gnostic Gospels, but not much. If you don’t want the annotated you should use the latest Oxford New Revised that isn’t annotated.

This is a lot. I get carried away when I’m into something.

I acknowledge that others are religious and may have a different approach. I’m not offending anyone. I’m presenting it from my perspective. They’re free to present from theirs.

Hope this helps. I can recommend some good books to read along if you want. “God: An Anatomy” is great about the beginning of the Hebrew and early Yahweh, the desert god of the southern Levant.

Hope this helps you get started.

The Book of Job is one of the eternal poems of all human life.

Yes, Cam. You’re right. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. IMO, there is no understanding Job. Every attempt to understand it tears it apart. It’s to be experienced, not understood, like all great art.

I'd recommend speed reading, unless you want to be a little bored for long stretches. Scan the text, dive more deeply into what resonates.

It's also far more of an interesting text when you recognize that the Hebrew God and monotheism has roots in Hinduism and Brahman. In that way the traditionally Western and Eastern forms of religious thought have significant parallels. So try not to read it as an isolated, Western religion, filtered through the modern era.

The text itself also has a fair amount of parallels with other holy books. It turns out that many of the morals and themes contained within are human universals, that were 'discovered' in many different times and places.

For my money I like the later Zen Buddhist texts like Dogen's Shobogenzo, and Sekida's translation of The Blue Cliff Record. But if you want to study Buddhism these are the final texts you want to read, likely not the first ones.

Also indoctrinated as a Catholic, I never read the Bible until taking a Sacred Scriptures course as a freshman at Notre Dame. Wow. Interesting and subversive stuff.

My friend has a good lecture on it:
https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/meandering-fortune-graphs

I tried as a teen but got bogged down in one of the later Mosaic ones, maybe Numbers. I read most of the New Testament (some of John in Greek!). It's generally less poetic, since it was largely written by less educated people than the Old Testament, but I'd recommend it after Genesis since it is so key to a lot of art.

A great aid to approaching the Bible for the first time is Fr. Mike Schmitz’s The Bible in a Year podcasts. He presents 365 podcasts, about 20-25 minutes each, and goes through the whole thing explaining the background and making necessary connections. His style is warm and engaging.
Good luck, Mark!

I mentioned The New Oxford Annotated Bible above. My wife bought it for me at Christmas. The type is small, particularly in the notes, and the paper is so thin it can be frustrating turning pages, but it’s a wonderful book if you’re interested in the text in its context. That’s particularly true with the Hebrew Bible. It is much more profound than the other mythologies. I would love to read the stories before they were so heavily revised in the sixth century. Before the monotheists tried to edit the gods and goddesses out of the original stories. El, father of Yahweh, had seventy sons and each had a job. But this is what we have now. Hopefully there will be more findings like the Urgatte one.

Anyway, if you want more of an entire reading experience spring for Oxford Annotated. It’s worth it. You can read it for the rest of your life.