Students from Western Theological Seminary came from their Hebrew class to demonstrate the verses they were spending the fall semester discovering in deep study of letters, words, phrases, staging and voicing in order to get to know God better. Along the way several questions about the spoken English and then the acted out Hebrew came to mind, https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pCyw8tQ-LEg.
First, after 12 weeks of continuous study of the 11 verses they have grown to find new meanings and unexpected ideas rising out of the rhythm and texture of the stories. But I wonder if this new aural and enacted tasted for the text makes the rest of The Book seem thin (lacking the same in-depth treatment) or seem overwhelming (so many other worthy verses remain).
Next, enacting written passages may have some parallels to musical notation. Just as the markings on sheet music on no more than directions, and the living tissue of sound and pattern comes from going beyond the composer's instructions and feeling the timing and ensemble effect with the other musicians, whether instrumental or vocal. By the same token, the recorded lines from Bible, whether original OT Hebrew and NT Greek, or in vernaculars, should not be conflated with The Word. Only in speaking and in hearing what is pronounced can their be engagement with meanings. Reading silently the pages of the Bible is like reading silently the pages of a music score. The result is a pale approximation of the real thing.
Third, a devil's advocate would point out that the great depth coming from spending a semester on 11 verses does take one to new places, but yet there is more. And just when a mortal mind starts to feel satisfied with its grasp of the Infinite, The Omnipotent and The Omniscient then one must remember that such impressions are bound to be wrong because one can never comprehend the Infinite. And yet the pursuit of truth and wrestling with The Word is its own reward, incomplete and imperfect though it may be forever.
First, after 12 weeks of continuous study of the 11 verses they have grown to find new meanings and unexpected ideas rising out of the rhythm and texture of the stories. But I wonder if this new aural and enacted tasted for the text makes the rest of The Book seem thin (lacking the same in-depth treatment) or seem overwhelming (so many other worthy verses remain).
Next, enacting written passages may have some parallels to musical notation. Just as the markings on sheet music on no more than directions, and the living tissue of sound and pattern comes from going beyond the composer's instructions and feeling the timing and ensemble effect with the other musicians, whether instrumental or vocal. By the same token, the recorded lines from Bible, whether original OT Hebrew and NT Greek, or in vernaculars, should not be conflated with The Word. Only in speaking and in hearing what is pronounced can their be engagement with meanings. Reading silently the pages of the Bible is like reading silently the pages of a music score. The result is a pale approximation of the real thing.
Third, a devil's advocate would point out that the great depth coming from spending a semester on 11 verses does take one to new places, but yet there is more. And just when a mortal mind starts to feel satisfied with its grasp of the Infinite, The Omnipotent and The Omniscient then one must remember that such impressions are bound to be wrong because one can never comprehend the Infinite. And yet the pursuit of truth and wrestling with The Word is its own reward, incomplete and imperfect though it may be forever.
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