telling stories out of Sunday school

Forty-five years on, nearly sixty-five years since my destroyer days, life still tugs at the heart when news comes of a Navy warship damaged or lost and sailors killed: this morning's report and pictures of the Thai Navy corvette sinking in heavy weather, saved sailors sitting forlorn, and many shipmates missing.

Our own most recent were of collisions at sea involving Pacific Fleet destroyers, sailors killed, investigations and discipline.

In the investigations and disciplinary actions that followed, firings up to and including the vice admiral numbered fleet commander but carefully letting off the hook the four-star brass who had been repeatedly warned of lack of training and dangerous operating demands on the ships. It wasn't right, lacked integrity: as well as firing skippers who'd been asleep in their cabins, four-stars' heads should have rolled. However, ...

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Although the weather for Christmas Weekend promises to be ungodly cold, on the northwest Florida Gulf Coast we have 39°F and a perfect mid-December Monday morning of the week that builds to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Gifts around our Christmas Tree, I think Linda has finished with that annual gift wrapping exercise that she seems to enjoy. Next, their opening on Saturday or Sunday, as folks prefer.

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POD: XC60 to gas pump, then to Bay Town to see when they can repair the burned-out headlight, then to Cramer's to find out what's going on with my SRX that I took to the shop last Monday about the "service seat belt" sign. Can't call and ask, because the service rep's voice mailbox is full; I'll drop by this morning.

Well, the service rep is out with Covid and the wrong parts came in, so I brought the car home to wait in the HV garage.

So what else is new? as Harry Golden put the early-20th century rendition of Yiddish that his neighbors had brought from Eastern Europe.

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Yesterday's Bible stories from Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1, interrelated favorites that I wanted to comment on, maybe explore a bit. Here are the two stories again:

Isaiah 7:10-16 NRSV

Isaiah Gives Ahaz the Sign of Immanuel

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

Matthew 1:18-25 NRSV

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

(Matthew uses LXX, a Greek translation, not the Hebrew Bible)

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah [Christ] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,  and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.

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These are lovely stories, not history, but holy stories. Unfortunately, the Church has used them, well, used Matthew's story, to codify the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth, with people holding this as literal, inerrant foundational history, a key element of the Christian faith.

Sunday after Sunday, we stand and recite the Nicene Creed as a summary of our stories about our Trinitarian God, Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. "He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." The stories the Creed conveys, and the Creed's own history in its making, are fascinating to know.

Here are some facts about yesterday's two stories from Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1.

First, be mindful that the Isaiah story has nothing to do with the Messiah, it tells about something that happened eight centuries earlier in Jewish history: the prophet Isaiah met with king Ahaz because Ahaz was terrified that other kings had joined arms to overthrow him and his kingdom, Judea. Pooh-poohing Ahaz's fears, Isaiah points to a pregnant young woman in the room and assures Ahaz that the enemy kings of whom Ahaz is so afraid will fall and their land be deserted before the young woman can birth a son, name him Immanuel, and raise him to eat curds and honey and to know good from evil.

It was common in Matthew's day for Jews to lift Bible verses out of context and use them to prophesy things about a messiah whom they were expecting, and that's what Matthew has done, in retrospect about Jesus, half a century after Jesus' death, in the gospel he wrote to persuade members of his community that Jesus really was the Messiah notwithstanding his shocking end.

But Matthew did not use the original Hebrew language Bible, he used the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX), a Greek language translation of the Hebrew Bible. Just so, in this case: while Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible calls the young woman "Almah" a Hebrew word meaning "young woman" - - the Greek translation that Matthew used translates "Almah" as "Parthenos" a Greek word that means "virgin" - - and to Matthew's evident ignorance of Hebrew we owe our Doctrine of the Virgin Birth, of which Christianity has made so much, including stories, piety, doctrine and dogma. Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin even though Matthew specifically says Joseph didn't have sex with Mary UNTIL AFTER Jesus was born. Immaculate Conception to clear Mary of Original Sin so she doesn't pass it on to Jesus. Stories of Joseph being an impotent old man who, bringing children of his own who were only alleged to have been Jesus' brothers and sisters, came into a prim, sexless marriage to Mary for heroic reasons of saving her from something. At a Jesuit silent retreat I attended years ago, my spiritual director, a Roman Catholic clergyman, told me that Joseph was not Mary's husband because the Holy Spirit was Mary's husband, and that if Joseph had been involved, that would have been adultery. I asked him, "Does your bishop know you're teaching this?" and he assured me that yes the bishop knows. oooooookay!!!

As I mellow into extreme old age, life becomes clearer and clearer, more and more lucid; and one thing that has clarified in my aging is that a story is a story, and different people understand a story differently, from their particular perspective, and it really doesn't matter at all. Certainly not to Whoever or Whatever uttered "eh-yeh" in the beginning and set all this into motion.

Pictures: there was morning and there was evening, one day, Monday 19 December 2022.

RSF&PTL

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14 לָ֠כֵן יִתֵּ֨ן אֲדֹנָ֥י ה֛וּא לָכֶ֖ם א֑וֹת הִנֵּ֣ה הָעַלְמָ֗ה הָרָה֙ וְיֹלֶ֣דֶת בֵּ֔ן וְקָרָ֥את שְׁמ֖וֹ עִמָּ֥נוּ אֵֽל׃

JPS Tanakh 1917 Isaiah 7:14

Therefore אֲדֹנָ֥י adonai (the Lord) Himself shall give you a sign: behold, הָעַלְמָ֗ה hā-‘al-māh, [עַלְמָה noun feminine young woman (ripe sexually; maid or newly married)] the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

LXX Isaiah 7:14 διὰ τοῦτο δώσει Κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον· ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ λήμψεται καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ·

Isaiah 7:14 King James Bible

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14 Revised Standard Version

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el.

Isaiah 7:14 New Revised Standard Version

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.