“He was not inventing a myth so much as releasing it.” Frye
Numbers: a bit slow. Funny the proportion of text allotted for the ‘boring’ stuff versus the interesting moral/mythological/poetic bits. Pages upon pages describe what sacrifices to be done for which festivals on what days. Yet, in most, a single detail is changed, if that. In the story of Balaam, we are given only a few chapters. Interesting and well-written though they are, they are placed neither above nor below the quotas in importance. It seems the authors primary concern is rarely ever one of poetry, but I would argue that it is one of myth. As boring as I am, I do not see the beauty of lists. However, for the people, the lists were. They too mattered, they too had grave impact, they too were the breath of God.
Sometimes I just wish god had some breath freshener. Tic-tac Jahweh?
(GET IT? CAUSE IT STINKS….ITS A PUN) well, sort of.
Balaam, the Donkey, and the Angel
Talk about lacuna….without missing a beat Balaam talks right back to his talking donkey. This opens many questions, however: “God opened the mouth of the donkey.” Similar to opening the womb of Sarah, does this mean the Lord unblocked an already existing blockage? Were the words on the donkeys mind, could he simply not speak them? Or is God simply speaking through the mouth of the donkey? The feeling is given that it is indeed the donkey who talks. “Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?” Then again, he sure does sound a lot like god.
If only I could interpret the bible as metaphorically or concrete as I can study Hinduism. The concrete language used is unmistakably un-descriptive: purely metaphor, purely stating that which cannot be explained by anything other than parable. Not annotated parables at that.
The bible throws in some snags though. At times, it seems almost sacrilegious to interpret this language as concrete. Yet searching for the history and empirical evidence is just as sacrilegious. Frye’s chapter on Mythos. One of my favorite lines thus far: “…though an open mind, to be sure, should be open at both ends, like the foodpipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake.” Well, he sure makes me laugh, maybe I should take Professor Sexson’s advice, if I had been born about 80 years earlier.
Frye goes on to say, “What I am saying is that all explanations are an ersatz form of evidence, and evidence implies a criterion of truth external to the Bible which the Bible itself does not recognize.” (p.44)
Similar to what we talked about in class Thursday 24th, no? I have good reason to believe this class has a plan for us all.
Back to Balaam and Balak:
“I have brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.” He answered, “Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts in my mouth?” That, right there, is some damn good dialogue.
Numbers…numbers…..nuuuuumbers. AND THEN the daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, MIlcah, Tirzah. These women petitioned in the name of their father, who died and had no sons, to still receive his due inheritance. Women….requesting things….of men…..cool. And guess what? Lord was cool with it, and even agreed with them. I don’t know. I am not really a feminist, but its hard not to notice women in literature when there is such emphasis placed on their non-role in most other things. One just thinks that this mention of sex is significant. But then again, maybe that’s part of the problem.
“It is a day for you to blow the trumpets.” (Numbers 29.2) How’s that for the sounding of a perfect day ? What makes a perfect day perfect? Everything goes well? State of mind? Wheaties for breakfast? Or is it the soundtrack of all of these combined, the music that harmonizes to create a fanfare of trumpets in your soul.
Where is our city of refuge?
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