Laws, statutes, precepts, commands, ordinances, what is it with all this legal jargon and how should we parse it?

Currently in the process of some initial checks on my Non-Religious Bible Psalms project, I noticed some interesting parallels between Psalm 19 and Psalm 119. Apart from sharing a very similar number, we see first in Psalm 19:7-9 and then in more detail in Psalm 119 a whole array of legal terminology that is not easy to translate, especially if we want a reader to find it believable that anyone could find such a thing as an "ordinance" exciting or delightful.

One of the initial things that has had me puzzled is the order in which the Psalmist unpacks his message. Given that he starts in Psalm 19:7 with GOD's Torah, we might be permitted to think that he is going from big to little, but that is not always immediately clear. From the most overarching and society-directing to the individual minutia GOD's words/instructions/insights/instincts/lessons/judgements are fantastic?

This is the order the Psalmist takes it here:

1. TORAH, traditionally rendered "the law of the LORD" (7a)
2. EDOT, traditionally rendered "the statutes of the LORD" (7b)
3. PIQQUDIM, traditionally rendered "the precepts of the LORD" (8a)
4. MISWOT, traditionally rendered "the command[ment]s of the LORD" (8b)

[interlude on the YIRAT/fear of the LORD (9a)], then 

        5. MISHPATIM, traditionally rendered "the ordinances of the LORD" (9b)

(Later in Psalm 119 we will also have huqqim, dabar and imrah.)

So what is going on here, do we have our big-to-little? Or what other thought patterns can we discern? Torah is indeed the benchmark for the Hebrews and so it makes sense to begin here. Where commentators can go is then to say there is no need to think in terms of "big to small", because the Torah comprises all the following points anyway. If this were the case, then we might want to ask the question, how come all the following verses do not switch subject? Ie: The Torah of Yahweh is perfect... the Edut of the Torah are trustworthy... That is not what we see. Rather we see each legal item attached directly to Yahweh himself.

So how big is Number 2, EDOT? The English-favoured term, statutes, are pretty high up. Unlike the Torah, of which there is just one (as far as I am aware), God's whole legal framework for his healthy society, these are nationwide laws. So far so good, although there is a sense of 'warning' about EDOT that might be necessary to factor in for more meaningful translation.

Next, 3. PIQQUDIM. The translated term of "precepts" is a more local enactment of something higher. So yes, we do seem to observe a pattern of big-to-small.

4. MISWOT seems to betray the pattern, however, since we have spoken commands, often of divine origin. Maybe the betrayal is not so great, however. Remember what was said about how all the verses might point to the Torah after 7a? Well, just because MISWOT is usually a divine command does not mean that it should be higher up the pecking order especially because they are all directly linked to Yahweh himself. So the real transition that is happening is that we now move from something that was intended to be written as a written part of the legal structure of Yahweh's society to something that was intended to be recorded as a spoken clarification or a contextualised instruction from Yahweh, that would have future ramifications. So written to spoken could be seen as a progression in this sense.

Then we have the fear interjection, which I do not particularly find fitting here (sorry Mr. Psalmist!) as it seems to interrupt the flow. After that, the pattern is restored where we have our potential candidate for the most localised outworking of GOD's wonderful clarity for flourishing society, 5. MISHPATIM, "a judge's statement of what should have taken place in a particular case" (Wilson, NIV Application Commentary). It seems to me that the order is more or less intact, with the rather awkard interjection needing some consideration. Do we desire that translations contain awkward structure when the intention is for poetic beauty to reflect the beauty of the subject? I would suggest that at least for some translation purposes that the answer is in the negative.

So before we tackle a non-religious rendering of the passage, first we need to think about positioning of the fear clause. My suggestion would be to make it 11c. In the NIV this would read:

By them (all these laws and guidelines by God for his people) is your servant warned;

    in keeping them there is great reward

        [for] the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.

Although I was originally intent on reordering some of the other parts slightly, I believe we can maintain original "big-to-local" thought as follows:

7. a. LOVE’s way is like it,

Reviving the soul after a long cold night.

7. b. LOVE instincts in us can be trusted,

Making even the inexperienced among us seem like wise sages.

8. a. LOVE paths are bang on and lead to real joy in the community.

8. b. LOVE’s words are pure and literally light up our gaze.

9. b. LOVE insights are solid and consistently right.

Note that the "it" of 7.a. serves as a nice connector to the whole preceding section of God's wonderous creative order, the conclusion of which was the sun's gracious sharing of its life-giving heat as it journeys from horizon to the other.

Obviously, a lot more to be said, but I think that will have to do for today.

Aligning My Purpose

In a powerful series of reflections embedded within meditation and prayer, I have encountered the challenge of asking myself: what is my purpose?

This is perhaps an opportunity to really highlight the wisdom of the Bible and how it came to be so sacred and inspiring for so many generations. It contains truth that can guide us at such a deep level and away from scary messages from society that unremittingly indicate that our worth and values are tied up with a purpose to survive and receive praise. My purpose was wrapped up in my unquenching thirst to be loved. It remains a struggle.

So not always knowing quite where to begin, I was reminded of a passage we studied in Bible school almost twenty years ago (at King's School of Theology, run at that time by Salt & Light ministries). It's from the prophetic book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament. In the NIV it reads: "For the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." Sounds pretty awesome still, but first let's check out the English translation a little.

Our Bible studies "teach" us theological facts like "God is love", "God gives us his peace if we submit to his ways." But that kind of knowledge leaves the part it's supposed to impact the most specifically, our heart, almost completely untouched, on the edge, unaffected. The worries and fears of my mind are unaffected by this kind of "knowledge." What might help these mindsets - of which I am a direct descendant - are words like 'understanding' or 'awareness'. We could consider colliding them all somehow, Amplified Bible-style:

Knowledge

Understanding

Awareness

"...filled with a knowing and understanding awareness of ..."?

I think we can do better than that. Let's look at some of these words' traits.

Knowledge (stable but not pervasive, sensory or experiential)

Understanding (embracing)

Awareness (now, experiential, but temporal)

Let us attempt a return to 'awareness' and see how we might overcome its temporal limitations:

" ...filled with awareness of...". Without the article there is a greater feel of stability and transcendence to this quality of awareness. I also recall that sentences such as these in Hebrew can be understood in a progressive sense, i.e. the Earth shall be increasingly filled (until completion), which also plays against any worry of a "flash-in-the-pan" kind of awareness.

Moving onto "Lord" - we have long discussed on this blog how to better go about translating the Tetragrammaton in English and the deep-seated problems for Bible translation in maintaining allegiance to this medieval word. This was one of the pillars also for my presentation at the Bible Translation conference last October. The best option we found according to the dynamic method and the grammatical translation history was Eugene Peterson's "GOD". 

"Glory" is another interesting word. It is a bit religious sometimes, and I am not sure Christians always quite know what to do with it, but I feel it sometimes lacks the human response intended by the word, of awe and wonder at its beauty, light and power. I am using "glorious presence". I would also like to go further than waters simply "covering the sea". It sounds kinda cranky, and we can do bigger than "sea" as well. So I am choosing "engulfs the oceans." So here is my biblical purpose, embodied in my translation of Habbakuk 2:14:

For the Earth will be filled with awareness of GOD's glorious presence as the waters engulf the oceans.

I think that's a great common purpose. And it is in nature and it is in us. So deep, so good, breath, life. It makes a nonsense of my mental constraints on 'love'. And it breathes life into my values too. 

Firstly: Let life breathe. Express. Listen. Voice. 

Secondly: Rejoice. Flood.

John 10:17, why does the Father love Jesus?

My Mum came up with an interesting question yesterday about the following passage from John 10:17:

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

It's a curious translation. It prompted my Mum to ask if Jesus had to earn God's love through his obedience, even though the Father and Jesus are "one"? What role does obedience have in obtaining or experiencing God's love? I don't know where NIV derived their definite article, "the". So firstly, the Greek does not say "only because of this one reason".

Further, I feel prompted to add that God is love, he can't not love us. Anything in us unlikable or unlovable is not fundamentally who we are. If you switch out "God" for "Perfect Love", we can't have "Perfect Love" who doesn't love you perfectly!

But my own perspective is moving away from some kind of spatial transmission from the outside in, but rather a deeper awakening of that already resident and divine perfection. As a "fundamentally" impatient person, I recently dared to dream and affirm myself that I had glimpsed patience there. And now I know that I was right! Underneath the impatience there really, really is patience, and I was able to practice it despite feelings of frustration (mindfulness practice helps me here a lot, seeing rather than living inside the feeling). The patience wasn't beamed in from somewhere else, but rather awakened according to releasing some more of that extraordinary and exquisite design we all share, that us spirituals call "divine" or "of God".

So the Father just loves Jesus, not because he specifically did A, B or C. The obedience is instrumental in the experience and awakening of the love and perfection already at work (or dormant) within.

Unlocking down, wisdom for decision makers and prioritising our own mental health

I was listening a few days ago to Sam Harris on his Making Sense podcast, where he discussed with Paul Bloom the ethical issues surrounding how we deal with our responses to the pandemic. What is the value of human life? Look how crazily dependent the context is. If we were to say only 800 people died worldwide of the virus today would seem like an amazingly positive thing to say or think, and yet we would be horrified to hear of the same number resulting from a fire in our town, right?

Flourishing is an important word in this debate, which also brings in economic concerns. People's lives are profoundly impacted in negative ways to increase worldwide suffering, by:
- lockdown raising one day early
- lockdown raising one day late
- lockdown raised in ways that are not perfectly defined, followed and enforced.

Clearly, our national and local authorities are faced with a daunting task.

In any case, the ethical dilemmas are complex and cannot hinge solely on short-term results. In our own personal circumstances, we pray particularly for wisdom for authorities governing the conditions under which French schools can return to some degree of operationality. The French education minister appears quite indecisive and limp. Many of the very important practical details appear overlooked. Home support from children's teachers for parents choosing not to return their children seems ready to be cut starting next week (I'm homeschooling the children in the mornings using these materials). 

What connection can we make with the task of making faith and scripture relevant or even useful? Much can be said of wisdom, of the peace and mental health that can be drawn through regular meditation/meditative prayer. We need to be concerned for and take care of our mental health more than ever - for Christians, like everyone else really, that means digging in deeper to their beliefs. What do I fundamentally believe about life? What are my priorities? What am I so thankful for? Who am I so thankful for? Just how extraordinarily beautiful is our natural habitat? Can we glimpse our own inner beauty and value? How aware and tolerant am I of my internal worries and fears? The Bible is a solid resource for grounding a good number of these questions and I'd encourage folks to seek some out, such as:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34).

Pain

Pain has its uses, we all know that. But largely, I think we should agree, and in its excessive and chronic forms, it's a pile of crap. Hurt that just keeps hurting without resolution and messes with your mental health, strips you of energy and pilfers the coffers of grace of your loved ones is not to be silver-lined. The only action I can think of for Christian human beings are the following:

- recall that pain and suffering, although not distributed equally among us, are part and parcel with every human experience. Therefore, any alleviation from specific pain via a healing or some medical breakthrough is likely to give way at some point to another form of suffering, as blissful as the relief may initially have felt.

- listen to our friends' suffering. I'm desperate to talk about my pain, but it is not a subject most people enjoy listening to - maybe it reminds them of another trauma of their own or its simply depressing. In our social interactions we seek out laughter, intrigue, news, stimulation. Depressing pain doesn't tick many of those boxes.

- don't let the fatigue that accompanies the pain stop you from taking alleviating measures. I have just boiled the kettle for my hot water bottle which alleviates my gut pain, but I've slept badly and the kettle is well, literally metres away! And I'm typing an important blog post about suffering.

- The Christian bit: God's story as exposed in the bible includes occasional, non-permanent release from suffering, except of Jesus' resurrection of course, which still bears the marks of his suffering. So apparently we are never to forget these great trials. The key question, perhaps not sufficiently developed to my mind in the Bible, is how we can walk alongside one another in our physical and psychological trials, not just pushing for the miraculous breakthrough but accepting simple companionship in the harsh brutality of this part of life?

Thanks for listening in! If you'd like to write in with your suffering I promise to read through it and acknowledge it, probably nothing more than that.