As I sat reading this morning's newspaper, getting ready for
the first Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, I decided I
needed some relief from the financial crisis, the political mess, and the whole
world situation.I skipped directly to
the funnies.Such relief!One strip is a favorite.It's called "Pooch Cafe" and stars
a
thoroughly reprobate dog named Poncho.His hapless owner often doesn't know what to
do with him.His owner's wife is a cat
lover.You can imagine the
friction.In today's episode, Poncho is
wondering why God allowed a tree to fall on his master's house and wreck
it.A fellow pooch suggested that God
was confused by the cat hair that covered poor Poncho, and ended up by
observing, "Maybe he was in an Old Testament mood."I laughed out loud.
Just who is this Old Testament God we hear so much
about?He often seems so petulant, so
arbitrary, so unpredictable.We like the
New Testament version a lot better.He
seems to have his act together.Of course,
he''s the same God, the same "yesterday, today and forever." But we
poor humans continue to strugglewith
our perceptions of this
elusive deity.
And we often don't do much better when it comes to the
patriarchs and prophets who populate holy writ.Their lives are likewise confusing and contradictory.It's enough to make an old guy like me throw
up my hands in despair and say, "Forget it!Let's skip to the New Testament!"
As you might expect, there is an abundance of opinion when
it comes to the Old Testament God.Jews
and gentiles, believers and skeptics, have all had their say over the
years.We've read so much of it, and dismissed
much of this as wildly imaginative and, at times, disingenuous and wrongly
imagined.But the literature is rich in
speculation and
imagining the lives of not just the God of the Old
Testament, but the men and women who populate that record.
Clawson
helpfully supplies a key to the reference works he's used to compile his
book.In addition to scripture, he
cites:
Velikovsky's
"Ages in Chaos"
Gaster's
"The Dead Sea Scriptures"
The
Forgotten Books of Eden
Hancock's
"Fingerprints of the Gods"
Whiston's
"Josephus, The Complete Works"
The Book of
Jasher
Ginzberg's
"The Legends of the Jews"
The Lost
Books of the Bible
Barnstone's
"The Other Bible"
Yonge's
"The Works of Philo"
Velikovsky's
"Worlds in Collision"
I dare say there isn't a Chuck-a-Rama on the planet that
offers such a rich and tasty selection as does this little book.The questions becomes, how much weight do we
give these works when it comes to understanding the Old Testament's message?
Clawson
is careful to preface his thoughts with the warning that the additional
materials are presented for "interest only."In this brief statement, he deflects any idea
that he might be advocating the truthfulness, or otherwise, of the various
comments.He maintains a safe distance
from the danger of giving too much weight to sources that
are, at best, questionable.
What follows is an interesting interweaving of scripture
with the sources listed above.In many
cases, the added material adds intriguing dimensions to the scriptural
text.We don't accept these additional sources
as canonical.Nor do we believe that
these writings constitute an authoritative corpus of scripture for our
edification.Instead, we are treated to
a wide spectrum of delightful tradition and speculation, fun to read, and at
times, mind-blowing.
How helpful is it to be able to look into the minds of
others as they contemplate the Old Testament story?I would suggest that we have much to gain
from reading these sources.Of course,
we need to maintain a proper distance from them when it comes to authority and
canon, but it's sure a lot of fun to brush shoulders with these writers.Some of what
they say may liberate some of us to come a bit higher in our
thinking.
