I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

//A number of Revelation interpreters continue to read these verses literally. Please don’t. Such images may seem bizarre to us today, but they had grown into common symbolism long before Revelation appeared. They denote the wrapping up of a nation, such as Babylon (as told by Isaiah) and Egypt (by Ezekiel). For example, Isaiah 34:4 reads, “All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree,” and this has nothing to do with the end of the world. If you doubt this, please take time to verify for yourself: Isaiah 13:1, 13:19, 14:22, 21:9, 48:14, 48:20. See also the “little apocalypse” describing the fall of Jerusalem in Mark 13:24-27 and the other Synoptic Gospels.

This apocalyptic imagery probably evolved from an ancient hymn to the storm god, Baal, describing his advance into combat:

    As the fig droops

I’m sure there are hundreds of reviews by now of this book on Amazon and elsewhere, so I won’t repeat what everyone else is saying. I just want to call it to your attention.

If you’re new to Bishop Spong’s books and his liberal Christian bent, then pick this up. Published way  back in 1991, it wasn’t Spong’s first book, but it’s where you want to start. In fact, this should be your starting point to understand liberal Christianity in general.

Current Biblical scholarship will shake your faith. There’s no way around it. If you open the door to studying the Bible critically, you’ll never be able to go back. Your faith will either be shattered or transformed … depending upon who shakes it.

Choose Spong. He won’t pull punches, and he’ll probably leave you with more questions than you started with, but it’s a journey that must be taken. Choose Spong, because after Spong finishes dismantling fundamentalism, he is able to rebuild your appreciation for the Bible and your faith in God (more so in his later books than in this one) … even if you never again think of God the same way.

Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”

//Jesus agrees. Word comes shortly that it’s too late–the girl has died–yet when Jesus arrives and examines the girl, he finds her still alive. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”

Luke concurs. Jairus tells Jesus his daughter is deathly sick, and then she appears to die before Jesus gets there, but Jesus asserts that she merely sleeps, and wakes her up.

Matthew’s version varies a little. Jairus comes to Jesus already claiming that his daughter has died; Jairus isn’t asking for a healing or resuscitation, but a resurrection. Matthew 9:18, While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.”

Jesus does just that. But what’s the true story? Is she dead or just sleeping? Jesus is careful to allow no one in the room but his closest disciples as he revives the young girl, so who knows what magic he performed. But this we do know: the story of Jairus’ daughter carefully mimics an Old Testament passage.

It’s taken from II Kings 4:31-37, where a Shunnamite woman’s only son died. Jairus entreats Jesus in the same manner the woman entreats Elisha, falling at his feet and begging several times. Matthew changes the Jairus story slightly to align with the Old Testament source, by saying the daughter of Jairus is already dead.

A logical conclusion, then, is that Jesus did indeed perform a resuscitation of sorts, with his closest, most trustworthy disciples attending, and that these disciples allowed the story to grow legendary … while never stating that she actually died. In time the story took on the flavor of a common Old Testament resurrection.

★★★★★

Hey, I think this new Banned Questions Series by Christian Piatt and acquaintances is gonna work! I’ll also be reviewing the next one in the series, Banned Questions about Jesus, though I haven’t yet broken its cover.

Piatt’s MO is to collect a number of uncomfortable questions, typically issues that we would feel awkward about discussing with our pastor, and then pose the questions to contributors. These contributors appear to represent several stops along the sliding scale of Christian beliefs, but so far as I can tell, each is quite learned in Biblical studies or contemporary religion. Some are more conservative than others, but all are thoughtful.

Can we be Christians if we don’t believe the Bible is perfect? Does the Bible condone slavery? Did God really write the Bible? Why bother reading the Old Testament? Why does God appear to change his mind?

Some of the Bible’s commands just don’t make sense to us today. Should we really be concerned about the Old Testament’s dislike of same-sex partnerships when it also says eating shrimp is an abomination, and so is wearing mixed fabric? We don’t get our cotton-blend panties in a bunch whenever we go to Red Lobster. Today’s times are different, and we are in the process of outgrowing our prejudices. Leviticus 19:20 says that it’s OK to doink a slave girl as long as she hasn’t been freed and you feel pretty crappy about it afterwards (alright, I think probably this contributor was paraphrasing), but I doubt anyone today agrees that this law is representative of a moral society. The point is, the Bible begs for thoughtful interpretation, not mindless following.

As such, don’t expect all questions to be answered to your satisfaction. Religion just doesn’t work that way, does it? Particularly disappointing to me was a chapter on why there are no miracles today. I also noticed that those polled quite often agreed on an answer. Perhaps the answers were culled, or perhaps the questions weren’t hard enough, but in the real world of Biblical advice and scholarship, unison is a rare luxury. So, Piatt, don’t be afraid to share answers that are contradictory! Make us think, man!

Loved the book, and looking forward to the next one.