{"id":750,"date":"2013-02-08T11:11:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T15:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=750"},"modified":"2013-02-08T11:11:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T15:11:43","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=750","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 Wooing of Rebekah: Part II &#8211; Held on Sunday, February 3, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Personal Note on Posting Timeline<\/b><\/p>\n<p>No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013.\u00a0 I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John.<\/p>\n<p><b>Gen. 24: 28 \u2013 61 \u2013 The Wooing of Rebekah [Third Episode]<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Before reading the passage I reminded Heber of a question he had asked last week, Is this passage the source of pre-arranged marriages?\u00a0 It\u2019s an excellent question on a number of points.\u00a0 The question identifies a cultural reality at the time of the author.\u00a0 It assumes that the biblical account is the source, origin of that cultural reality.<\/p>\n<p>The bible is not the source of the cultural reality of \u201cPre-arranged Marriages.\u201d The opposite is true, namely, that the biblical author simply is giving expression to a cultural reality that he is quite familiar with but is not unique to the Israelite community.\u00a0 It is more an expression of a patriarchal society.<\/p>\n<p>It does raise, however, a basic question that we, as a group, rarely actually ask; let alone answer.\u00a0 What in this story is unique to the Israelite community, what is being revealed, what is part of their story as the People of God?\u00a0 Faryl wondered if it had something to do with descendants.\u00a0 Annette thought it had to do with who Rebekah is, part of Abraham\u2019s extended family.<\/p>\n<p>Although both of these responses are an actual part of the story, the question remains.\u00a0 Abraham was approaching death.\u00a0 Yahweh had promised him both land and descendants.\u00a0 Abraham knows that it is through Isaac and not Ishmael that the Yahweh intends to fulfill his promise.\u00a0 This story is the concrete way in which Abraham becomes the instrument in which the promise will continue.\u00a0 What Abraham was confronted with, we all are too.\u00a0 We believe and we will die.\u00a0 What is to become of that belief, my concrete belief in this place at this time?\u00a0 I would suggest that it is in answering that question, Yahweh communicates through Abraham to all future generations.\u00a0 What is to be done will change over time, but the story is to be lived by all who believe for the sake of world.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind too, that in this story it is Rebekah and not Isaac who is called to leave family and land just as Abraham was asked to do.\u00a0 She in her \u201cI do\u201d cooperates with Yahweh in the grand story being narrated and lived.\u00a0 She is to play a vital role in the tradition that leads to Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p>\n<p>There is as well two words in this passage that, at least for me, capture the heart of the God of the Israelites, that are revelatory.\u00a0 The two Hebrew words are \u201chesed\u201d and \u201cemet.\u201d\u00a0 The translations that most attracts me are \u201chesed\u201d which means Yahweh\u2019s <b>steadfast love<\/b> and \u201cemet\u201d which means Yahweh\u2019s <b>kindness<\/b>.\u00a0 Each of us has been chosen to be alive and the very sources of that life is a relationship of steadfast love and kindness.\u00a0 Yes life does offer sufficient evidence that God could not possibly be one who is steadfast in his love and kind and then there is Christ, crucified and risen.<\/p>\n<p>Before we read the passage though I continue to offer <b>Our Questions<\/b> and <b>My Refrain<\/b>.\u00a0 Quieting ourselves, allowing the questions to arise, paying attention to what happens to oneself in the reading\/listening forms the condition of hearing God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n<p><b>Our Questions<\/b><\/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 start=\"1\">\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>what the characters say and do, or<\/li>\n<li>don\u2019t say and do but we would expect them to do so, and<\/li>\n<li>finally when they enter into the passage and leave it<\/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 start=\"2\">\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d question is quite complicated and again for the sake of completeness; there is<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d within the story \/ passage itself,<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d of the editor, and most importantly,<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cwhen\u201d of our life at the time we are actually reading \/ studying the passage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>What is the plot, the point of the passage?<\/li>\n<li>Finally, 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.\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?\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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>My Refrain<\/b><\/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><b>Reading of the passage\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/22\"><b>http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/24<\/b><\/a><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Discussion Gen. 24: 28 \u2013 61: \u00a0<\/b><b>Rebekah and her family respond<\/b><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Tim wondered if we are dealing here with a second author since the story is repeated in a different context but pretty much the same story.\u00a0 I pointed out that one of the key terms that helps scholars determine the authors is the name of God and that name is consistent in this story.\u00a0 As far as I know, therefore, scholars see this whole story as being written by the J author.<\/p>\n<p>Ken made an interesting observation, sometimes the story is told in the first person and at other times in the third person.\u00a0 He knows that it is the author doing that in narrating the story but wondered why?<\/p>\n<p>One thing that I thought this allowed the narrator to do is to make known to the reader \/ listener what is not necessarily known to the characters in the story.\u00a0 This has an interesting impact on us who are the readers \/ listeners.\u00a0 We realize that in the story the characters living a life of faith don\u2019t know certain things.\u00a0 In this passage Abraham and the servant don\u2019t know who the woman is, whether she will say yes or no but the author does and so too do we the readers. \u00a0So as people of faith we at one and the same time know and don\u2019t know.\u00a0 The demands of life require us to live a life of prayer if we are to know \u201cYahweh\u2019s Steadfast Love and Kindness\u201d at the very time in our life when such knowing seems to be contradicted by the facts on the ground as it were.\u00a0 It is at that very time we question, doubt that God could possibly be \u201cSteadfast Love and Kindness.\u201d\u00a0 Paul urges us, therefore, to pray always.<\/p>\n<p>Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal Note on Posting Timeline No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013.\u00a0 I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John. Gen. 24: 28 \u2013 61 \u2013 The Wooing of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=750\">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":[10,21,5],"tags":[7,18,19],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-new-evangelization","category-scripture","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture","tag-scripture-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","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=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}