In for a penny, in for a pound

[nineveh_uk]

I was supposed to be posting a short fic, but haven’t managed to finish it yet because I can’t think of an ending – that’s the problem with little sketches that don’t have anything behind them. Instead I shall spare you an account of last night’s dreams (I was in a ski race. The fact that there was no snow seemed not to be a problem), and move on to note that after a lengthy hiatus I have returned to my Bible reading and can see why I gave up half-way through Proverbs. Still, I like this one as another example of “Bible people are just like people”:

Proverbs 27, 14: He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

It’s not just the passive-aggressive blessing that amuses me, but that it was a common enough problem that it was worth cursing. I have mixed feelings about Ecclesiastes, which does indeed have a large amount of recogniseable quotes of the “where are the snows of yesteryear” variety, but also a lot amount of repetition and occasional leaps into “and women are all evil whores who lead to hell”, although both of these are pretty much occupational hazards of reading the Old Testament, which taken as a whole (OK, the first 550 pages, I have 200 to go) is (a) dreadfully edited and (b) screamingly misogynistic. Chapter 12, with its portent of doom followed by incongruous and possibly interpolated cheery final verses strike me as rather like the end of The Seafarer.

Next up The Song of Solomon, which is good because I have read it before and it is very short, followed by Isaiah, which I haven’t read and which is very long, though with many famous bits in it.

Comments

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Ha! I love it.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I love the little human moments - who wouldn'tloathe Joseph as a brother?

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

Isaiah has lots of angels - Yay.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Angels are always fun.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

which I haven’t read and which is very long, though with many famous bits in it

Sounds like Hamlet.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

There's a reason the Occam's razor of quote identification is "Bible or Shakespeare".

(I have read Hamlet. It was Macbeth I held out against for years in hopes of winning Humiliation, until I realised it was a fictional game.)

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Or Oscar Wilde.

[sophie-spence.livejournal.com]

In the States it's usually Mark Twain.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

It isn't fictional if people actually play it, though. I would be happy to play it with you except that, since you've now read Macbeth, I would win.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I still haven't read Clarissa. But then that applies to lots of people, and there isn't any cred in not having read The DaVinci Code.

[joyeuce]

I decided to read the whole Bible this year, and am managing to persevere through (a) alternating chunks of Old and New Testaments, (b) having a sheet with little boxes to tick off so I feel like I've achieved something, and (c) native stubbornness. In spite of over 30 years of church and Sunday school, plus a theology degree, I am getting an awful lot of "so that's where that comes from" moments. Also I had always thought I liked Job and Ecclesiastes, both of which I'd read before, but not on this re-read. They have their moments, but overall - meh.

Also just started on Isaiah, and looking forward to the angels! How come my degree managed to miss out so much of the Bible?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The project started off very well, but I started wanting to read something else, and it's easy not to go back after a break. But I'm determined to get a good chunk more under my belt before Christmas. I rather enjoyed Job - some dull bits, but overall pretty powerful. At least it wasn't about the interior decorating of the Temple.

I am getting an awful lot of "so that's where that comes from" moments

I get those, too, but they tend to come from English Lit. This morning's was Harriet Vane's "all the powders of the merchant" from Busman's Honeymoon, which I hadn't realised was from the Song of Solomon, but which is pretty significant in context!

[joyeuce]

Ick yes, decorating anything is bad news. "God told Moses to do such-and-such ... and Moses told the people to do such-and-such ... and the people did such-and-such." For several chapters each.

I missed the "powders of the merchant" reference, probably because I am reading the RSV. I would like to be reading my Grandad's Authorised Version, but it's a zip-up book and the zip's bust. :( So my Sunday-school-prize RSV is the next best.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's Exekiel, not Isiah, that has all the angels in it.
I assume you're reading the King James version - so are you reading it in the order it's printed? I'm used to the original (Hebrew), which has all the prophets before the random books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I shall find out!

I am reading it principally for purposes of English Lit, so that means the KJV for the Church of England (with occasional checks to the Revised Standard Version when the famous version is obviously a different translation). However I have been enjoying the Slate Blogs the Bible series, in which David Plotz, a not-really-observant Jew, reads the OT in the original order. It's interesting to see someone coming to the same text from a cultural perspective which is similar in many ways to mine, but also very different.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

The Song of Solomon is very good indeed.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I finished it on the bus this morning. I'd read it before, but years ago. It was particularly pleasing to pick up a Sayers references that I hadn't got before and that was significant in context :-)