I have had another very busy week working on my dissertation and following the courses I’m attending. So, unfortunately, I have not had time to do any research on this week’s OT lesson, “How Can I Do This Great Wickedness” from Genesis 34; 37-39. And that is unfortunate, because I really love the story of Joseph. However, tomorrow is my wife’s birthday and we have some things planned, so (as my wife is more important, alas, than my blog), it looks like I won’t be able to provide a post on this week’s lesson.
I will mention, briefly, some cool experiences I had this week in attending my courses. In Kristin de Troyer’s text criticism class, we went to the library and looked at exact replicas of the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. The two books are some of the oldest Christian documents in existence. The Codex Vaticanus, specifically, is the oldest complete copy of the Bible in existence, having been put together in the 4th Century. From what I understood, and I am no expert on the history of the biblical canon, this codex was the first “Bible” ever put together. Before this, there were only diverse, separate manuscripts (at least for the NT). The Codex Vaticanus, as it was explained to me, is what gives us the concept of the Bible as one complete book. This is interesting as someone was just recently talking to me about how the Bible has been complete — one organic whole– since the time of the apostles. Of course I knew that that was not the case, but it was neat to see the book (at least a replica of it) that was the first full Bible (centuries after Christ).
My course with Jim Davila was also eventful. We looked at the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Hodayot, which are documents that I am looking at for my dissertation. It was interesting to see the distress on the students’ faces as we discussed issues of “suprahuman priests”, angelified humans, heavenly ascents, and deification (all of which are featured in these writings). When explaining that these people probably practiced a ritualized heavenly ascent which resulted in their deification, Davila called this notion “performative deification.”
I’ll leave you with that…
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Of course, I’m jealous that you are studying with Jim Davila…. Don’t you wish more traditional Christians could be made uncomfortable with the ancient texts (and Bible, for that matter)? Someday we will all come to a unity of the faith, and thanks to true scholars, we are getting a little closer.
I agree. Unfortunately, there seems to be more and more of a disconnect between the work of biblical scholars and the preaching of the churches. That’s one of the great things about the LDS church — instead of feeling threatened by these ancient texts, we more often embrace them and feel validated by them.
It is interesting that there is the mention of holy/godlike/angelic tongues within the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Reminds me of our discussion on Nephi and the “tongues of angels.”
“Augustine begins by assuming all those present love the physical beauty of God’s house. Finding themselves within beautifully constructed walls (in fabrefactis parietibus), before shining marble (in nitore marmorum), and under gilded ceilings (et laqueariis aureis), the congregation is instructed to see how the splendor of God’s own house (decorem domus Domini) can be found most perfectly in themselves, in the church’s faithful and holy people (sed in hominibus fi delibus, sanctis). Delighting in their gazing, in the elegance and magnifi cence of the basilica, the faithful learn to see how they are to become the true temples of God…Light, the Sabbath, sacrifice, gold, and oil are efficacious only insofar as they find a home in the hearts of the faithful. As signs which point us to God, the transformation that these scriptural and liturgical symbols effect are ultimately aimed have been at making God’s people like himself.”
“Liturgical signs especially unite to God those who worship rightly and Augustine does not hesitate to call them gods: Deus facitque suos cultores deos…As Gerald Bonner has rightly argued, this is how deifi cation for Augustine is an “ecclesial process” in that only the communion of Christ’s people and the liturgical vehicles (Bonner concentrates on the Eucharist) which causes this bond, can bring enfl eshed human persons to participate in the divine life…Religious symbols, as found in both scripture and in liturgy, are oriented toward and thus have value only as they are taken up and assimilated within the internal lives of God’s people…The liturgy thus becomes the locus deifi candi, the place where the drama of human salvation is not only reenacted but effected. Surrounded by the temple of praise and all that is within, human persons are to see how God bids them to become his living signs. Gold, oil, trees, the altar of sacrifi ce, the Sabbath, and the laud Christians sing are all constituted to cultivate the full life of the baptized so as to draw them into a closer union with the divine, becoming gods by becoming God’s.” (David Vincent Meconi, “Becoming Gods by Becoming God’s: Augustine’s Mystagogy of Identification,” Augustinian Studies 39:1, 2008)
Apparently this liturgical deification continued even in Neoplatonic Christianity.
Thanks Walker for this very useful material. Great job finding that! I had never seen that before. The liturgy is very good for preserving ancient tradition, even when those practicing it don’t fully understand its original meaning or function.