Minister’s Musings, June 2011
Last month I was able to attend a gathering of Biblical scholars, the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Society of Biblical Literature. They meet with the American Academy of Religion and the American Society of Oriental Research (the archaeologists). The real purpose of the meeting is to give up and coming scholars the opportunity to read the report of the research they have been doing so this is a good time to find out what people at seminaries and in religion departments are thinking. Some of the topics are of interest only to scholars: this year we had the opportunity to hear Syntactical Shifts in the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls, Do They Really Exist? The Case of the Conjunction Waw. I decided to skip that one. But the range of subjects discussed is broad since the people who study religion are there. I had the opportunity to have dinner at the Islamic studies table and I heard a lecture on Mennonite women during World War I. I spent most of my time with the Archaeologists and with the Old Testament people. I learned about a temple constructed in Jordan about the same time as the temple in Jerusalem and about a Greek city under the Venetians and the Turks in the Middle Ages. One of the most interesting lectures was on L. Ron Hubbard and the emergence of Scientology. Hubbard was a science fiction writer who began writing about nuclear radiation in the 1950s, a big concern form many after the bombings in Japan and above ground testing. (Actor Tom Cruise is a member in the Church of Scientology.) Mr. Hubbard sold himself as a nuclear scientist although he never graduated from college and got an F in his one science class. But he was able to provide answers and responses to people who were justifiably anxious about the effects of radiation when neither the government nor the scientific community was forthcoming - or didn’t know themselves. I remember trying to convince my father to build a bomb shelter in the back yard and am eternally grateful that he had enough sense not to do that. It’s sometimes difficult in today’s world to live with paradoxes and insufficient information, but we can trust that the future is in God’s hands and hopefully not become victims of people who are ready to give us an answer, even if that answer may have no basis in reality.
Probably the most insightful lecture had to do with Cain and Abel. I had not realized that Abel’s name in Hebrew is havel, the same word in Ecclesiastes that is translated “vanity.” It really connotes transitoriness, a breath, and even nothingness. So maybe Abel’s name signifies that his life will be short or that, as the second born, at least Cain considers him “nothing.” God certainly does not consider Abel “nothing” and we see in this story (and in the way the names are listed in the story: Cain/Abel, Abel/Cain, Cain, Cain, Cain/Abel, Abel/Cain) that while human society gives honor to people on the basis of birth order (or family or wealth or nationality), God often takes the one who is considered “nothing” and raises them up to first place. Something interesting to think about.
In our modern world, we often don’t take the time to just think about the information that is presented to us, either on television or in the Bible. I am glad that people like the Society for Biblical Literature gives time and space for people to think, to imagine, to delve into word order and grammar, to think and discuss arcane topics that may not have any practical application at all. And many times, that’s wonderful.
