I have spent a considerable bit of time preparing a Sunday School lesson this week on the Garden of Eden. My inspiration comes from two sources: 1)The recent collector's edition, "Secrets of the Bible", from U.S. News & World Report, and 2) the even better book by Eric H. Cline, "From Eden to Exile." I do not intend to regurgitate them. Rather, they form the basis of this article. If you want to check them out, please do so. There are no "hyperlinks" here to follow!
There has been considerable effort placed into the task of trying to "locate" the Garden of Eden. There are many theories that can take one on a grand journey from the Nile River in Egypt, through Arabia, southern Turkey, Iran, and yes Iraq. On a wild ride, one could even come to Jackson County Missouri, not far from my beloved home in the Ozarks! Being Celtic in background, I personally would have placed the garden in Ireland!
As far as location goes, I have been quite fine approximating the location of the Garden somewhere along the path of what has been called "the fertile crescent." Cline makes some good argument to me for postulating the location there. Early archaeological evidence has shown us that this was one of the first places on earth to: domesticate animals, plants grain crops, develop towns and cities. Personally, I would also add the development of fermented beverages to the list, lest we allow the Egyptians all the credit!
At the end of the articles and book, we are left we the same question: "where is it?" As the old television commercial used to say, "the world may never know!" We simply cannot pin down the actual location of the garden with any certainty. Anyone surprised?
Why do we need to know "for sure?" It has nothing to do with "story" of the garden. Like many oral traditions, including modern ones, the story is a blend of myth and fact, pseudo evidence, that aims at making a point. In this case, we are to learn lessons about trust, relationships, truth telling, and the like. There is a lesson about "the sinful nature of humanity" here as well. We all have to face our Jungian "dark side." How did we get so sinful? Has God truly condemned us? These type of questions are the "meat and potatoes" of the story. I am not at all surprised that one can find parallels to the story in cultures all around the fertile crescent.
To need to "know for sure" that the garden existed is part of what I call a "doubting Thomas theory" to theological understanding and true biblical faith. It is as though we have this need to prove to the world that Christianity was right! Considering the fact that even Jesus did not convince everyone of his purpose, one may be in for long ride---trying to prove to the world the "truth' of the Bible, or the stories contained there in.
What is truth? Who is right? I am not qualified to answer that question. I can find enough source of truth, for me, in the what the ancient stories of the Garden of Eden are attempting to teach. One can learn much from history. After all, humanity has been making history for a very long time.
slainte,
Ray Province
Ray Province is a retired minister and owner of the The Celtic Ozarkian website. He writes on issues related to life in the Ozarks. He resides in Fair Grove, Missouri-the heart of the Ozarks. He is currently a IT programer in the healthcare industry.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Surviving the Food Budget
We wanted to share some ideas that can help beat the cost of groceries these days. I am not sure what you are seeing in your area, but lower gas prices have not helped the grocery bill any. The rising cost of food, blamed on the cost of transportation, was not changed. So, we have to be as smart as the food industry.
Grocery stores all over the Ozarks run specials on meat that will soon be out of date. It helps the grocery store contain their costs, and gives the buyer a good deal. How’s that for a new Celtic tradition? We see this all over Springfield, Missouri. I am sure you will see it in your neck of the woods.
Make a list of what you need for staples. Then add what you may need to make a meal of the sale meat. If we find chicken on sale, we have a plan on what meals to make from it. We do the same with pork and beef. It takes an extra minute or so, but it is worth it.
Consider adding in some meatless dinners. We like to do eggs and toast for dinner, once in a while. It is not very Irish, but it is very hillbilly! I suspect there are others that would join me in eating breakfast for dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is another perennial favorite at the Province home.
Use coupons. They save money, if you shop with them wisely. In some stores, like our Walgreen Drug, you can get extra discount on the coupons.
Watch the grocery ads in your area. We recently needed some hamburger for a pot of chili, and had a range of $1.69 to $3.29 for the same 75/25 burger. Not a bad trade off, considering we routinely shop at both stores that represented the spectrum of price.
Look for discount days at your grocery store. One of our favorite stores offers 10% off the whole bill on Tuesdays for Senior Citizens.
According to some recent statistics I read, from the USDA, the average family with teenage children spent $602.80 per month on groceries, on average. I don’t know about you, but I want to keep all that I can. If this will not work, I want to get all I can for the money!
Slainte,
Ray Province
Ray and Robin Province are the owners of The Celtic Ozarkian website, dedicated to issues surrounding life in the Ozarks. You can find us at: http://www.celticozarkian.com.
Ray is currently an IT programmer in the healthcare industry, and freelances in SEO and website development. Robin is a semi retired ICU nurse who now works in coding and compliance in the healthcare industry.
Grocery stores all over the Ozarks run specials on meat that will soon be out of date. It helps the grocery store contain their costs, and gives the buyer a good deal. How’s that for a new Celtic tradition? We see this all over Springfield, Missouri. I am sure you will see it in your neck of the woods.
Make a list of what you need for staples. Then add what you may need to make a meal of the sale meat. If we find chicken on sale, we have a plan on what meals to make from it. We do the same with pork and beef. It takes an extra minute or so, but it is worth it.
Consider adding in some meatless dinners. We like to do eggs and toast for dinner, once in a while. It is not very Irish, but it is very hillbilly! I suspect there are others that would join me in eating breakfast for dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is another perennial favorite at the Province home.
Use coupons. They save money, if you shop with them wisely. In some stores, like our Walgreen Drug, you can get extra discount on the coupons.
Watch the grocery ads in your area. We recently needed some hamburger for a pot of chili, and had a range of $1.69 to $3.29 for the same 75/25 burger. Not a bad trade off, considering we routinely shop at both stores that represented the spectrum of price.
Look for discount days at your grocery store. One of our favorite stores offers 10% off the whole bill on Tuesdays for Senior Citizens.
According to some recent statistics I read, from the USDA, the average family with teenage children spent $602.80 per month on groceries, on average. I don’t know about you, but I want to keep all that I can. If this will not work, I want to get all I can for the money!
Slainte,
Ray Province
Ray and Robin Province are the owners of The Celtic Ozarkian website, dedicated to issues surrounding life in the Ozarks. You can find us at: http://www.celticozarkian.com.
Ray is currently an IT programmer in the healthcare industry, and freelances in SEO and website development. Robin is a semi retired ICU nurse who now works in coding and compliance in the healthcare industry.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
What Do We Know About the Bible?
I was spending time this a.m. preparing a new Sunday School lesson, and thought this might make a good blog for discussion. What do we know about the Bible? It is fair to say that opinions and attitudes about the Bible have changed dramatically in my life time (the last 50 yrs., oh my!) Yet, belief in the Bible as "God's Word" remains very strong. Why?
1. Part of the answer to these questions comes from recent finds in the world of ancient literature. From the findings of the scrolls at Qumran through the great finds in Iran and and Iraq, we now have new information about the ancient Middle East. Further, those texts are starting to be translated--leaving us new "food for thought."
Biblical archeology has also been hard at work. We know much more about ancient cities, encampments, old battle grounds etc. Many of these finds help us understand that there are many historical places "that are actually there in all point of fact!"
Our attitudes about the Bible have also changed. As I went to seminary years back now, we were wrestling with "JEPD", the "death of God movement," "biblical, critical interpretation of the Bible", etc. One of my favorite seminary memories came from a day when a student asked my old New Testament professor why Paul was so hard on women, asking them to be quiet and subservient. She quoted the now infamous text in the book of I Timothy as proof of point. My professor's response: "Paul didn't write Timothy!" That was the end of the discussion. It was much later when she found out that he held women in high esteem! We just wanted to get on with the lecture!
2. So, how was the Bible created? Unfortunatetly, we will never know the full answer to this, because we don't own some original, ancient text called "The Bible." In actuality, the Bible is made up of a serious of "books" or "texts" that span thousands of years of ancient history. To make matters worse, we do not have original copies of any of these texts either! Budding archeologist unite! The quest continues!
We also depend on the "traditional interpretations" of the Bible for help to understand them. These stories and texts on "how to interpret" the Bible are critical to meaning. Modern scholarship tried to strip the old interpretive messages away, in order to find greater meaning. Hence, a new problem was created! Once stipped of any traditional meaning, the Bible became a "scrap quilt' of little pieces of text that shared little in the way of meaning. There was no great secret to "the meaning" that was found in Biblical, critical disection. The tradition came hand in hand with the texts!
3. So, who wrote the Bible? The answer is simple: a lot of people! Having said that, we ought to take note of some other points: most the so-called "authors" of the Bible were illiterate, and would have required help to write anything down. In addition, ancient cultures did not abide by our idea of "ownership." We copyright everything. Ancient cultures would attribute "authorship" to the main characters of a story! Whether or not a biblical character actually penned a story is irrelevant, from their standpoint! Finally, it also seems apparent to me that these ancient books contain actual, remembered "sayings" of the characters! So, that was another reason ancient cultures could have attributed "authorship" of a text to it's main character! "Who wrote it" is, at the end of the analysis, a rather hollow question to ask of any book in the Bible. The meaning is much more critical to understanding.
4. What does all this mean? Again, we are confronted by the "mystery' of Scripture in the asking of the question! Meaning is in the eye of the beholder! However, this is true only to a point!
Modern scholarship cannot, with any final authority, tell us what is "divine" or "not divine." That role cannot, and will never, belong to the field of modern academic research on the Bible. This role is left to the reader.
From the point of faith, we can also realize that the true authority and meaning of the Bible comes from a living God that reveals truth in the words written down. I don't intend to offend my brothers and sisters in the "biblical inerrancy" camp! Even if God dictated every word of Scripture to those who penned the words, it does not mean the reader would "get the message right!" Indeed, the Bible is full of stories of people who "just didn't get it!" You have to have a God behind Scripture, revealing truth, to help it make sense! No sense of modern scholarship can take this away either!
We also need the traditions of biblical interpretation to remain. We need these stories and lesson to help us make sense of the Bible. They are a package deal! To divorce tradition from Scripture is to risk being lead down paths best left untraveled.
That's what I need to "know" about the Bible.
slainte,
Ray Province
The Celtic Ozarkian
www.celticozarkian.com
1. Part of the answer to these questions comes from recent finds in the world of ancient literature. From the findings of the scrolls at Qumran through the great finds in Iran and and Iraq, we now have new information about the ancient Middle East. Further, those texts are starting to be translated--leaving us new "food for thought."
Biblical archeology has also been hard at work. We know much more about ancient cities, encampments, old battle grounds etc. Many of these finds help us understand that there are many historical places "that are actually there in all point of fact!"
Our attitudes about the Bible have also changed. As I went to seminary years back now, we were wrestling with "JEPD", the "death of God movement," "biblical, critical interpretation of the Bible", etc. One of my favorite seminary memories came from a day when a student asked my old New Testament professor why Paul was so hard on women, asking them to be quiet and subservient. She quoted the now infamous text in the book of I Timothy as proof of point. My professor's response: "Paul didn't write Timothy!" That was the end of the discussion. It was much later when she found out that he held women in high esteem! We just wanted to get on with the lecture!
2. So, how was the Bible created? Unfortunatetly, we will never know the full answer to this, because we don't own some original, ancient text called "The Bible." In actuality, the Bible is made up of a serious of "books" or "texts" that span thousands of years of ancient history. To make matters worse, we do not have original copies of any of these texts either! Budding archeologist unite! The quest continues!
We also depend on the "traditional interpretations" of the Bible for help to understand them. These stories and texts on "how to interpret" the Bible are critical to meaning. Modern scholarship tried to strip the old interpretive messages away, in order to find greater meaning. Hence, a new problem was created! Once stipped of any traditional meaning, the Bible became a "scrap quilt' of little pieces of text that shared little in the way of meaning. There was no great secret to "the meaning" that was found in Biblical, critical disection. The tradition came hand in hand with the texts!
3. So, who wrote the Bible? The answer is simple: a lot of people! Having said that, we ought to take note of some other points: most the so-called "authors" of the Bible were illiterate, and would have required help to write anything down. In addition, ancient cultures did not abide by our idea of "ownership." We copyright everything. Ancient cultures would attribute "authorship" to the main characters of a story! Whether or not a biblical character actually penned a story is irrelevant, from their standpoint! Finally, it also seems apparent to me that these ancient books contain actual, remembered "sayings" of the characters! So, that was another reason ancient cultures could have attributed "authorship" of a text to it's main character! "Who wrote it" is, at the end of the analysis, a rather hollow question to ask of any book in the Bible. The meaning is much more critical to understanding.
4. What does all this mean? Again, we are confronted by the "mystery' of Scripture in the asking of the question! Meaning is in the eye of the beholder! However, this is true only to a point!
Modern scholarship cannot, with any final authority, tell us what is "divine" or "not divine." That role cannot, and will never, belong to the field of modern academic research on the Bible. This role is left to the reader.
From the point of faith, we can also realize that the true authority and meaning of the Bible comes from a living God that reveals truth in the words written down. I don't intend to offend my brothers and sisters in the "biblical inerrancy" camp! Even if God dictated every word of Scripture to those who penned the words, it does not mean the reader would "get the message right!" Indeed, the Bible is full of stories of people who "just didn't get it!" You have to have a God behind Scripture, revealing truth, to help it make sense! No sense of modern scholarship can take this away either!
We also need the traditions of biblical interpretation to remain. We need these stories and lesson to help us make sense of the Bible. They are a package deal! To divorce tradition from Scripture is to risk being lead down paths best left untraveled.
That's what I need to "know" about the Bible.
slainte,
Ray Province
The Celtic Ozarkian
www.celticozarkian.com
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