anybody else love the old testament?


person122
 Share

Recommended Posts

I looooooooove the Old Testament. Not many people in my ward even read it and I am dying to find others who love it too. I will probably never be an Old Testament scholar, but when the Spirit speaks to me it is pure poetry. What are some of your favorite books, stories, learnings or such? My favoritr part has to be the journey in the wilderness. It so speaks to me of my personal journey throughout my life. Learning about the Tabernacle in the wilderness is sublime! There is so much in the Old Testament to teach my children. It opens up discussions that wouldn't happen otherwise: Idol worship, trust in G*d, individual responsibility to follow commandments, with G*d all things are possible, donkeys talking.... and when they reach the right age, there wil be the wonderful way the Old Testament has of explaining the importance of the law of chastity ( because they were doing more than just praying when they were worshiping those idols, if you know what I mean).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started reading the Old Testament three years ago, and it took nearly two years for me to finish it. That was technically my second time reading it through, but it was the first time I read it with the purpose of really understanding it rather than just reading it through so I could say I read it. I certainly gained a lot of insight and fondness for it. Some of the things I learned on this last reading include:

  • The Old Testament is a book filled with poetry and high literature, and represents the pinnacle of Hebrew brilliance and literary cleverness. It is among the largest collections of ancient literature and shows ancient Hebrew and its speakers in context of their surrounding languages and people, to whom it (and they) were closely related.
  • It is very unlike the New Testament, which Christians (myself included) often rave is so beautiful and inspiring. The New Testament was written in the common and somewhat simplified Attic dialect of Greek called "Koiné" (κοινή, meaning "common"), similar to the Septuagint, and not in the classical Greek of Homer and the Athenian playwrights. It was a pretty straightforward recounting of historical accounts and stories of Christ and his followers and collections of writings, mostly letters, by those followers. The letters are also written in a simple, expository style, almost as if writing to children, designed to help people understand ideas. It is nowhere near the grandiloquence of the Old Testament, yet ironically (or perhaps not ironically at all) is valued by most Christians as far more beautiful and accessible.
  • In my judgment, the Book of Mormon, which is commonly compared to the Old Testament, has much more in common in spirit with the New Testament: It was written simply and plainly in an expository style for the purpose of teaching people, and outside the Isaiah chapters shows little effort toward poetic or "high" speech. (It also has a vastly restricted vocabulary, likely due it its authorship in something akin to heiratic or demotic Egyptian.)
  • Though stories like Jonah and the fish, Job and his trials, and Balaam and the talking donkey get the popular press, most of the Old Testament is a sober, reliable recounting of non-overtly miraculous history. It is not, as some have derided it, one miracle story after another.
  • That said, the miracle stories in the Old Testament are there to illustrate specific aspects of divinity and our relationship with God. While I am not sure how literally to take the stories of e.g. the forbidden fruit or a man living in a fish's belly, the point being made usually seems clear enough.
  • The context of the Book of Mormon comes to life after reading Jeremiah. I wonder why we don't read a lot more Jeremiah in the LDS Church? Seems like it would be a natural thing.
  • I remembered the Song of Solomon as a tender love poem from a man to his wife. I didn't really remember some of the more explicit sexuality. (Not pornographic, but also probably not something I would particularly care for my young children to read.)
  • If we understood the cultural context for Isaiah, I am convinced it would be one of the easiest and clearest books of all the Old Testament. That it is also mighty poetry demonstrates how brilliant Isaiah was. Too bad the poetic aspects of Isaiah generally don't come through in translation.
  • The Psalms were not as interesting to me as I thought I remembered them, and the proverbs were not as trite and boring as I had remembered. Some of the sense of humor of these ancient people comes through in their proverbs.

I believe the New Testament and the Book of Mormon cannot be understood to their fullest without a knowledge of the Old Testament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Old Testament is definitely a favorite, just from the interest of the stories (the doctrine is amazing as well, but you just don't get these kinds of stories in the other Standard Works, wonderful as they are). The story of King David, and the days following the birth of his first child with Bathsheba... wow. So much emotion in just those few versus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

edit what, the bible?

I mean as a kid the bible was just a book to me, like any religious book, and my interest in religion has never went away-got a whole shelf dedicated to these books

I mean because of my kids young age I sometimes leave some things out or I might skip a a verse or so. Like I skip over the part of how Bathsheba got pregnant. Stuff like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was no scripture reading when I was a child, I don't live in a religious home.

And while I was baptized catholic it was more because it was something my grandparents wanted and I went along with it because I was promised money.

It meant nothing to me or my parents. Point being, I suppose by time I started reading it, I was old enough to understand the things it was saying. I remember we had a bible growing up but it was always kept on the shelf and was not allowed to be touched, since it was old and he had got it as a gift or some such thing, so I bought my own later which was lost in a move. I liked that one too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Genesis. Hands down.

It annoys some people, but I particularly like the "doubling" that is in much of the OT (almost every second paragraph is a rephrase of the previous paragraph.)

I learned the OT from a non-Christian perspective :

- Secular... in (public) school

- Jewish ... As the 5 Books of Moses / Tanakh

- Muslim ...Tuarat & teachings of Moses

I've also always loved the concept of the Nephilim (the children born of the sons of God & the daughters of men) which is this teeeeeny tiny piece in Genesis. The Rabbi I knew translated the word to mean "great" giant, not "fee fie fo fum" giant (like some Christian translations go for). Which always made me think of history & mythology's heros and heroines.

The OT is REPLETE with such things. Single lines that are like movie previews or teasers, to stories we never get to read. The Nephilm was the first such I found (which is part of why it's a favorite of mine) and then I liked going on Easter egg hunts through it looking for others.

Q

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Genesis. Hands down.

It annoys some people, but I particularly like the "doubling" that is in much of the OT (almost every second paragraph is a rephrase of the previous paragraph.)

I learned the OT from a non-Christian perspective :

- Secular... in (public) school

- Jewish ... As the 5 Books of Moses / Tanakh

- Muslim ...Tuarat & teachings of Moses

I've also always loved the concept of the Nephilim (the children born of the sons of God & the daughters of men) which is this teeeeeny tiny piece in Genesis. The Rabbi I knew translated the word to mean "great" giant, not "fee fie fo fum" giant (like some Christian translations go for). Which always made me think of history & mythology's heros and heroines.

The OT is REPLETE with such things. Single lines that are like movie previews or teasers, to stories we never get to read. The Nephilm was the first such I found (which is part of why it's a favorite of mine) and then I liked going on Easter egg hunts through it looking for others.

Q

Which of the versions (Jewish or Muslim) have you found useful for further understanding the Old Testament?

Could you explain further the concept of Nephilim? And what verse is it in?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which of the versions (Jewish or Muslim) have you found useful for further understanding the Old Testament?

Could you explain further the concept of Nephilim? And what verse is it in?

Genesis 6:4 (The Flood)

1Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. 4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.…

Also in numbers 13:33... Although I never found at as a kid!

The Reports of the Spies

…32So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. 33"There also we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, which come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. "

_____

The ongoing debate in Christian circles is basically about how the Hebrew word is translated. Although every rabbinical scholar I've met says there is no debate. The words are entirely different. Like love, live, lave, are 3 entirely different words in English (much less levee, lively, liver, loave, when one starts adding letters! Actually, I think the original example given to me by Rabbi M was someone trying to make "live" plural. Instead of translating it to "lives" it's translated to "lovers". Whoops. That doesn't work!). A SIMILAR word (N-ph-l) means "fallen". Which has led Christian circles to ponder did they make other men fall? Were they themselves begotten of fallen-angels? Or angels? Or, or, or.

But that does NOT translate to nephilim in the plural. Nowhere close.

Hebrew doesn't use vowels.

n-ph-l = naphal = fallen

n-ph-l-m = nephilim = plural masculine "giants"

_____

The nephilim have sparked a lot of people's imaginations.

Pop culture has several dozen "what ifs" about them. From the Watchers, to demons, to demon hunters, to heros, to aliens, to ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which of the versions (Jewish or Muslim) have you found useful for further understanding the Old Testament?

The 5 Books of Moses are the same in all 3 religions... They're just in different languages.

All 3 are religions of Abraham.

All 3 worship the same God.

Jews have the OT

Christians have the OT / NT

Muslims have the OT / NT / Qur'an

Each builds off the last with further revelation.

One runs into translation issues, but one runs into that, anyway.

Hebrew & Arabic are both closer to Aramaic than English, but both languages have concepts that are difficult to translate INTO English (even modern usage). And vice versa. IMHO Mohammed was an exceptionally wise man in requiring the Qur'an to only be published in Arabic, so that followers actually have to learn Arabic & read it as written. Translations are never held as truth. Then again, he was seeing first hand all of the craziness surrounding the multiple translations of the Christian Bible over 700 years and several major language changes (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin... And then eventually, 1600 years and several other languages later!, English, but that hadn't happened, yet).

I actually find myself grateful for all FOUR interpretations ('Im including my secular schooling, looking at the OT as one of the oldest examples of literature in existence.), although the overlap is almost total, there's some variation that adds some interesting depth.

One thing to know about me.... I spent half my childhood in Asia. Which means I see all 3 religions of Abraham as extreeeeeeeeemely similar to each other (like Spanish & Italian). Meanwhile wars have been fought, killing millions (I include the holocaust, as Jews were targeted by their religion) , as there is infighting within and between the various groups over the differences. I can see branches of Buddhism as being radically different from each other, or Shintoism v Polynesian religions, or Hindu v Eastern Orthodox... But I actually have quite a bit of trouble in drawing lines between Judaesm, Christianity, Islam in the details.... Because they're So. Darn. Similar! So while it would make sense that different interpretations exist, I don't tend to see them very well. Whether its a Rabbi, Priest, or Imam... Their views almost never conflict when we're chatting about belief... But tend to be 3 different ways of saying the same thing. Sure, lots and lots of things are different... But the Spirit is the same... Even though application is different.

Clear as mud?

Q

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share