My husband and I take a Bible course called EfM, which stands for Education for Ministry. It's a four-year program through the University of Sewanee that involves a lot of reading....
But through all the piles and piles of words, we learn about people like Huldah. Do you remember Huldah from Sunday School?
I don't. Apparently she was a prophetess about whom there is only a brief excerpt-- and she didn't make the cut for the Sunday School curriculum.
She shows up in II Kings 22:14-22 and in II Chronicles 34:22-28, and it was SHE who made the first recorded assertion that the written words in the Bible are "the words of the Lord." It is an assertion that has become a commonly held belief among followers of Christianity and Judaism alike.
The EfM writers say,
"Up until this time, the power of the Lord was held to be in the moment of the speaking of an oracle. Now Huldah is saying that God still 'speaks' through the written word."
Rather interesting information to ponder when stopping to think about the history of the church and women.
(Speaking of the church and women, I decorated the cover of my EfM binder. It comes in a rather boring shade of burgundy.)
You know, there are a lot of things that could very well have been missed out on in the Sunday school curriculum. I highly recommend reading The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. And, then you can pick up a copy of the Lost Gospels like the books written by the other disciples and Mary and other characters who are in the Bible but get no speaking roles. Pagels asserts that these books were buried (literally in some cases) because they spoke of the spreading of power in a church and often said that women can be just as in tune with God as a man and suggested that sermons were taught by several on a shifting basis to ensure that all believers remained in touch with God and kept up with their spirituality and involved from service to service... actually, most of it boils down to the Catholic tradition and how these "lost" gospels were not completely for the all-knowing-holiness and power of the Pope. And, obviously, the pope wouldn't want to lose that power so why not cut those books out? Interesting theory. Interesting reading. Broaden your horizons.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I have read many of the "lost" gospels and they are not far-fetched or anti-Christian, actually, most are just mild accounts of the life of Mary before and after immaculate conception and such. How, I wonder, did these different points of view become a danger to Christianity and weeded out of the Bible as we today know it? (by the way, these people who believed in the Gnostic gospels (the Lost gospels are called this) were harshly hunted down and often killed by the other, papally oriented, Christians.
Seriously though, I could write an essay on this, and might just save anymore for a blog/rant tomorrow.
Yep, I've read the Gnostic Gospels as well as books on "radical" Female figures in the church such as "Catherine of Sienna". Very interesting, I agree. As for the "lost" books, I've read pieces of several of the gnostics' books. There's a great website where you can read different translations and commentaries on them:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html
How very interesting (the comments as much so as the blog itself).....I think I would like to read these Gnostic Gospels, too. Thanks for the website info.
ReplyDeleteBefore I read your and the Duchess's comments, I was going to comment solely on the cover you made for your ESM book........VeRy CrEaTiVe...I LikE!
Thanks, Mugsie. I like my cover, too!
ReplyDeleteOOOh, tis a very nice cover. Well done!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have a gift for making the mundane (book cover)pretty! What a beautiful gift. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete