{"id":729,"date":"2013-01-12T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2013-01-12T09:21:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-12T13:21:12","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=729","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> The Testing of Abraham &#8211; Held on Sunday, January 06, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Gen. 22: 01 \u2013 19 \u2013 The Testing of Abraham <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Preview<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>After a two week holiday break we returned to our study of Genesis.<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But as usual there were two topics that we dealt with prior to reading our passage.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>During the break I had read <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><i><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Creator God Evolving World<\/span><\/i> by Cynthia Crysdale and Neil Ormerod, Fortress Press, c. 2013. Given all of the discuss that ensued around the biblical account of creation, I found this book an excellent account of the tremendous intellectual Catholic tradition.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It affirms the transcendant nature of our God and both embraces and critiques the evolutionary science of Neo-Darwinism.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Since it has six chapters [see below], it seemed well suited for a Lenten series.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I offered to do a guided reading of this college level text for anyone who might be interested.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I was pleased to discover that more than a handful of those present expressed an interest.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>For those who are reading this web account, the six chapter headings are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">God, Religion, and Science<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Evolving World: Regularity and Probability<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Creator God<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Evolving World: Purpose and Meaning<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Human Freedom and God\u2019s Providence<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Implications for Human Living: Moral Agency and Emergent Probability<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It\u2019s available at Amazon<strong>, <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Creator-Evolving-World-Cynthia-Crysdale\/dp\/0800698770\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1357916782&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=creator+god+evolving+world\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Creator-Evolving-World-Cynthia-Crysdale\/dp\/0800698770\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1357916782&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=creator+god+evolving+world<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In discussing the book I mentioned that one of a number of key notions in<strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><i><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Creator God Evolving World<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">is the philosophical distinction between primary and secondary causality.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This distinction lies at the very heart of an intellectual approach to the question we dealt with in Comments on this site over the previous two weeks concerning the \u201cWhat to say in the face of Senseless Violence.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Commonly when confronted by the brute facts of such senseless violence revealed in the Newtown tragedy, other such events that have occurred all too often, as well as natural disasters such Hurricane Sandy, the tsunami that devastated Japan, the earthquakes that wreak havoc, destruction, etc., etc., we ask why did God allow such events to happen. Even though the victims of events such as these need care and compassion but ultimately there is a hunger for meaning and a critical component in constructing that meaning is to understand how God actually is the cause of all that happens save sin for which we are responsible alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This topic lead to an exchange among many of the group on the guns, controls, and violence.<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It would take us too far a field for me to summarize that discussion.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>However, one point that emerged more than once has particular significance.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>As a group we have been able to create a climate in which each individual seems to feel the freedom to say whatever is on their mind.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is this climate that brings them back again and again.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I personally believe that such freedom of expression is absolutely essential if we are ever to discern God\u2019s call in our life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In turning to our passage, The Testing of Abraham, Gen. 22: 01 \u2013 19, I was struck that the version on line failed, in my opinion, to convey the literary power of the story.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 As an alternative, I read an account from a Jewish version &#8211; <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ccat.sas.upenn.edu\/nets\/edition\/01-gen-nets.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">http:\/\/ccat.sas.upenn.edu\/nets\/edition\/01-gen-nets.pdf<\/span><\/a>.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Comparison with Gen. 12: 01 \u2013 04. <\/b>To begin, this passage mirrors the account of God\u2019s initial call to Abraham, Gen. 12: 01 \u2013 04.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 There God is asking Abraham to forsake his past and now God is asking Abraham to forsake his future.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 In both accounts God, despite the lack of almost any human evidence, provide.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 In each case Abraham is asked to travel to a location unknown to him but to which God will show him.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This passage is particularly poignant in the light of having just sent his first born, Ishmael, with Hagar into the dessert and a fate unknown to Abraham.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Literary Highlights. <\/b>I want to highlight as well a few literary points not as apparent in the New American Bible on the USCCB website<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/22\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/22<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, in vv. 2, 12, and 16 there is the haunting phrase, \u201cyour son, your only son.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is the near incredible silence of Abraham, except in v. 1 when in response to God, Abraham says, \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Then in v. 7 in response to Isaac, Abraham says, \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And once again in v. 11 responding to God Abraham says, \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is more but enough for now.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Our Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the sake of completeness I will include in our blog the basic questions that guide us in hearing the passages we study each week.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First who are the characters and what role does each play? To the extent that we can identify<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">what the characters say and do, or <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">don\u2019t say and do but we would expect them to do so, and <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">finally when they enter into the passage and leave it<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We can more easily and more accurately know what their role is from the point of view of the author and \/ or the editor of the passage.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Second, t<\/span>he \u201cwhen\u201d question is quite complicated and again for the sake of completeness; there is<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The \u201cwhen\u201d within the story \/ passage itself, <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The \u201cwhen\u201d of the editor, and most importantly,<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The \u201cwhen\u201d of our life at the time we are actually reading \/ studying the passage. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Third, w<\/span>What is the plot, the point of the passage?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">And f<\/span>inally, because each passage is at one and the same time the word of human beings and the Word of God, there is revealed the values that are part and parcel of the human beings in their time and place and there is the values revealed by God for the believer.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 Our final question is to discern which values in the passage are attractive to us, we are drawn to and which are we repulsed by, inclined to reject?<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 The more difficult task, if we do identify these two responses in us of the values revealed, which are of God and we are being challenged to embrace and which are not of God and we are being challenged to correct and develop.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>My Refrain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we read though, let&#8217;s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from the background, our questions and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reading of the passage\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/20\"><b><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/2<\/span><\/b><\/a><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">2<\/span><\/span><\/b><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Gen. 22:01 &#8211; 19 \u2013 The Testing of Abraham<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In listening to the Jewish version Ken was struck with the difficulty in just following that translation.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This prompted him to ask a question about the original sources of any translation. The question is basic to what is called Textual Criticism.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 What are the earliest biblical manuscripts [actual documents] that we have?<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 Research has identified \u201cfamily\u201d groups of extant documents; all of which are hundreds of years after the life of Christ, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biblical_manuscript\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biblical_manuscript<\/span><\/a> for an excellent overview of what we know at the present.<\/p>\n<p>Rosemarie wondered what was going on in the mind of Isaac when all of this was happening. What did he know?<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 What was he feeling?<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 All are wonderful questions but our text tells us very little.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 It is obvious that we want to know much more than the author has any interest in and that itself is a question, why? And it also requires a certain discipline to our questioning.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 There are simply a host of questions we can ask that the bible doesn\u2019t answer, at least, in a direct fashion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Heber was so aware that when Abraham responds to Isaac\u2019s observation that there is no lamb for the holocaust, God will provide, there was no evidence to support Abraham\u2019s statement.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This lead us to recognize that so often, like Abraham, we simply don\u2019t have any evidence to base on trust on except the word of God, that God is faithful.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 Trust is easy until it isn\u2019t and life does present many of us with times in which we question, wonder, and search for meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I wanted to point out at this juncture in our discussion that in this account, God knew that he was testing Abraham, we the reader knows that God is testing Abraham but Abraham doesn\u2019t know.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 We, the readers \/ listeners know now in our present but it isn\u2019t as though when life comes our way we know we are being tested.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This is why it is that we are asked to pray always so that when it comes and it will, we will be prepared.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This is why we are asked to gather with two or three because it is much easier when we are not alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Carol asked what was the setting in which the author, editor was writing; a question that puts the story in a context that we often overlook.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 We know that this story must have been told originally, then written down, then woven into the biblical account.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 Our best opinion is that the weaving into what we now have as the biblical account probably occurred after the exile.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 As far as I know, the effort of the Jewish community to make sense of the defeat of the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, the exile into Babylon, and return to the Land of Canaan is unique in human history.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 The Jewish community didn\u2019t turn to another God but rather affirmed that their God was the only God.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 This was the birth of what we know call monotheism, the belief in one God; a transforming event in human history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As always more occurred than I can write.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 Another lively discussion time that happened all too quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.<span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gen. 22: 01 \u2013 19 \u2013 The Testing of Abraham Preview After a two week holiday break we returned to our study of Genesis.\u00a0 But as usual there were two topics that we dealt with prior to reading our passage.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=729\">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":[10,5],"tags":[15,7,19],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-scripture","tag-historical-method","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-scripture-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","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=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}