{"id":210,"date":"2011-11-08T00:36:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T00:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2011-11-09T20:55:21","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T20:55:21","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat>  Session Six \u2013 Second Story of Creation \u2013 Part I. &#8211; Held on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Highlights from Session Five<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our session began with highlighting three points that came up during Session Five.\u00a0 Ken mentioned that one of the things he likes about this gathering, it&#8217;s an opportunity to express yourself, to get involved with the things and to make \u2026 to get out of your box \u2026 to express yourself and still believe.<\/p>\n<p>The second point was not so much what Mike said as what he did.\u00a0 In our discussion on the meaning of us being created in the image of God, Mike went back to the account in the Bible to observe that it doesn\u2019t say that God made the animals or the plants or anything else in his image.\u00a0 He went back to the actual words and that really takes discipline.<\/p>\n<p>Finally Diana, also in the context of our discussion on the image of God, reminded us that Christ is the very Word of God and, therefore, the very image of God in the flesh.\u00a0 As Christians we are bound to read the Hebrew Scriptures from that point of view.\u00a0 At the same time, our faith is the lens, as it were, through which we read the Hebrew Scripture; a lens not shared by others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Documentary Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I presented a summary of the book, <em>Who Wrote the Bible?<\/em>,<em> <\/em>by Richard Friedman.\u00a0 As a result of historical studies begun in Germany in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century, there is a general consensus that the First Five Books of the Bible were the result of four different authors written at different times under different circumstances.\u00a0 These four authors or perhaps schools are identified by four letters: J, E, P, and D. Each of the authors have a certain internal range of consistency.\u00a0 J identifies the author who consistently addresses God as YHWH Elohim which we translate as the Lord God.\u00a0 E, on the other hand, does not address God in terms of YHWH but only as Elohim.\u00a0 P represents the author whose focus of concern would represent the Priestly issues or concerns.\u00a0 While D stands for the author of Deuteronomy.\u00a0 There was a final redactor, someone who wove these four traditions into one, so successfully that it wasn\u2019t until the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century that these different traditions began to be recognized. \u00a0A time frame for these authors is presented in our handout:\u00a0\u00a0History of Ancient Israel and its Book,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94\">http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After reading <em>Who Wrote the Bible?<\/em> Tim remarked.\u00a0 It makes more sense now.\u00a0 \u2026 It kind of like opens your eyes and now I have the background \u2026 I can look at it in a different light.\u00a0 Ken commented.\u00a0 One of the things that really helped me \u2026 how the investigators identified two different biblical authors\u2019 accounts in one story, sort of tore them apart, and allowed me to read them separately.\u00a0 And it was really amazing after reading the two separated accounts, how much better they seemed to flow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Second Story of Creation<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You are now invited to read Gen: 2:4b \u2013 25 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/2\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/2<\/a>.\u00a0 It is especially important that you would read the editors\u2019 notes.<\/p>\n<p>It is seems to me that we have a difficult time appreciating that these passages, like all of the scripture, are written by people of faith to people of faith to support their faith.\u00a0 Because they were written by human beings though, they cannot avoid revealing the thoughts, world view, and literature of their authors\u2019 historical times.\u00a0 At the same time, they are not written as history as we expect historical writings to be written.\u00a0 There is more to truth than historical truth; a story can express truth, very profound truth without the story being historically true.\u00a0 This struggle came up in our group and might be what you too will struggle with.<\/p>\n<p>As you read this passage what struck you, caught your attention, and raised a question, something that you were awed by.\u00a0 And perhaps you might want to share it.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s discussion ranged far and wide.<\/p>\n<p>One of our struggles was with the story of the woman being made from the rib of the man.\u00a0 Ken had heard but didn\u2019t know if were true that men had on less rib than woman.\u00a0 Valerie who is a nurse assured us that men and women have the same number of ribs.\u00a0 Nonetheless, we continued to offer ways to account for woman being made from the rib of the man as though that account was historically true.\u00a0 It was quite difficult to recognize the truth of the story without the need to make the story historical, an actual account of something that happened in historical times.<\/p>\n<p>What is your opinion of this segment of the story?\u00a0 What do you think is its meaning?<\/p>\n<p>Our group then took up the question of the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad.\u00a0 This, of course, raises for many contemporary Catholics and Christians of other traditions as well, questions of historical fact, was there a garden, where was it located, etc.<\/p>\n<p>What is your opinion on these questions?\u00a0 How would you answer them?\u00a0 What does it mean to \u201cRise to the Level of our Times\u201d with regard to a \u201cTree of Knowledge of good and bad?\u201d\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t read the notes on this point, please do so.<\/p>\n<p>What is your opinion on the positions expressed in the notes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Highlights from Session Five\u00a0 Our session began with highlighting three points that came up during Session Five.\u00a0 Ken mentioned that one of the things he likes about this gathering, it&#8217;s an opportunity to express yourself, to get involved with the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=210\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}