Finally feeling the doors of time are opening to do some more reading - actually to catch up on reading is more like it - I've once again got a stack of books beside my night stand that's too tall and more than I can read before I need to return them to the library!
A few of the books in the stack are commentaries, two on Matthew's gospel and one on Luke-Acts. Commentaries have always been a love of mine for 20 years. I've referred to them, I've studied with them, I've read them. However, this love isn't without frustration; a frustration of two paradigms.
It is common - too common - that many authors write commentaries that are either too technical or too superficial. They are not always to be blamed since the vast majority of them are contracted to contribute to a series, managed by a publishing house. On the other hand, a balance between the technical and the practical is truly difficult to achieve.
In the intro to his Matthew commentary, theologian Stanley Hauerwas (Duke University) has some interesting thoughts on commentating (I am summarizing here), which I think can bridge this often artificial gap:
1. Don't write
about the author, as if the book is fixed to a point and time; write
with the author as if the book is written to
us.
2. Retell the story as Matthew
tells it.
3. Write so as to create a hunger in your audience to
re-read Matthew.
4. The commentary is not a substitute for the Gospel. Hauerwas organized his commentary according to the chapter divisions of Matthew in the hopes that people would read Matthew first and then turn to his commentary for reflection/interaction.
5. An approach that the Matthew (and the bible, really) is a narrative (essentially) and not a poem to find meaning in every stanza.
6. Avoidance of sectarian and high-brow language.
7. No over-preoccupation with one, singular, over-arching meaning.
8. "Assertions are reports on judgements that require further inquiry." Think about it!
9. Respect for Matthew's compositional austerity and reticence displayed in his "gospeling".
10. No over-preoccupation with what we really don't know!
A long list, I realize - and I'm not usually one for "lists" - but good food for thought. If we never write a commentary, no worry - our lives should be commentaries!
All over the internet this week has been the
story of a fragment of an ancient Egyptian document with the words "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" In all, the fragment contains just 33 words and incomplete sentences - an English teacher's worst nightmare! Karen King of Harvard University, one of the scholars charged with analyzing the fragment, stopped short of saying this proves Jesus was married, only to add that some ancient Christians thought Jesus was in fact married...to a woman...just to clarify...thought I'd throw that in for free!
Finally feeling the doors of time are opening to do some more reading - actually to catch up on reading is more like it - I've once again got a stack of books beside my night stand that's too tall and more than I can read before I need to return them to the library!
3. Write so as to create a hunger in your audience to re-read Matthew.
Paul Borgman's "The Way According to Luke" is an interesting study in the art of biblical narrative reading. Borgman, an English professor, knows the playing field and writes his work to level it for the modern reader of Holy Scripture. Early in his book, however, he's honest about what he sees as inbred problems facing those that have been told that reading the Bible is a good thing. Basically - we don't know how to read! Oh, we read...but not with great skill. Borgman lists 5 challenges to skilled scripture reading:
The Huskies are about to embark upon a foreign tour which will take the team to Europe and Africa. Games will be played in Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Paris before wrapping up in Aziz N’Diaye’s native country, Senegal. The last few weeks have been very busy at Montlake and this tour will certainly not aid in slowing things down. As the Huskies eye the date of their departure (August 25th), what will make a successful trip?
