Reading the Ancient Manuscripts

by Rev. Jim Couts, November 5, 2005



It’s my understanding that you’ve developed a series dealing with various contemporary political and social issues.  Knowing that the religious right in America is using the Bible to “prove” points of view opposite from the points of view held by most members of First Unitarian, you hope to lay a foundation for reading these ancient texts differently.  You’ve made a very wise decision albeit a very dangerous one.  Your studies may drive you to act, to organize, for freedom’s sake.

Slave owners in America thought the Bible would teach slaves to obey their masters but instead the slaves thought the story of the Exodus and the freeing of slaves was about them. 

Once I experienced first hand the Bible’s power to free.  In the early 1980’s I was in Cuenavaca, Mexico with refugees from El Salvador.  These refugees had escaped from a U.S. funded regime that practiced genocide.  The death squads labeled them “communist”; they were actually Catholic but right wing oppressive regimes often mistake Christians who actually practice their faith as communists.  I was asked to preach at morning worship.  I spoke no Spanish; the sermon would have to be translated.  It may surprise you that I turned to the book of Revelation.  Today this book, perhaps more than any of the ancient manuscripts, is being used to justify much of the agenda of the religious right.  Most progressive people hate the book but that’s because we’ve allowed it to be owned by tyrants.  In fact it was written to give hope to refugees from one of Rome’s most oppressive dictators.  In the latter part of the 1st Century when it was written, crosses lined the Appian Way for 40 miles on both sides of the road because Diocletian believed Christians to be a threat to his power.  These El Salvadoran refugees had much in common with the 1st century refugees. My sermon was a 2 minute reading from the 18th chapter of Revelation.  The only thing I did was change one word in the text.  Instead of “Babylon” I inserted “America.”  It was perfectly legitimate; the author of Revelation had inserted “Babylon” instead of the oppressor they were actually writing about, Rome.  Listen to what happens to this ancient text by changing one word:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven; he came with great authority….  In a mighty voice he proclaimed, ‘Fallen, fallen is America the great!  She became a dwelling place for demons.  For all nations have drunk deep of the fierce wine of her fornication; the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and merchants the world over have grown rich on her bloated wealth.

The kings of the earth who committed fornication with her and wallowed in her luxury will weep and wail over her, as they see the smoke of her destruction.  They will stand at a distance, for horror at her torment, and will say, “Alas, for the great nation, the mighty nation America! In a single hour your doom was struck.


The merchants of the earth also will weep and mourn for her.  The traders of her commerce who gained their wealth from her will stand at a distance and shout, “Was there ever a nation like this? 

It concludes: “But let heaven exult over her; exult, apostles and prophets and people of God; for in the judgement against her he has vindicated your cause.”

When the translator finished there was not a dry eye in the room.  When read as it was meant to be read, the Bible is a dangerous document.

We are not El Salvadoran refugees – though we stand in solidarity with oppressed people.  Please don’t forget that one simple thought – we stand in solidarity with oppressed people - because it has everything to do with the way we read these ancient manuscripts.  I hope that when you complete your study you will reclaim these manuscripts for the purpose for which they were intended, to call people to freedom.  If we allow the religious right in America to own and interpret these manuscripts, they will be used to oppress.  People of freedom must reclaim them.

Let’s look at four categories of manuscripts: first, legal code, second, historical narrative, third, stories, and fourth, poetry. These four literary categories comprise most of the scriptures.  I know the subject is more complex; each category has a number of sub-categories, but Jim Rapp said “20 minutes or less – preferably less.”  These four help provide a framework for analysis.  Please note, three of the four categories (historical narrative, stories, and poetry) are art forms, not science.  Even ancient historical narrative is really art because every single author used a very creative approach to interpreting history.  There was no attempt to be objective.  These are all forms of literary art.  What’s the point?  The authors of these ancient manuscripts are turning over in their graves as they see their works of art being taken “literally.” 

First, let’s look at legal code: 90% of it is irrelevant.  There is a law requiring a woman be stoned to death if she sews two different kinds of cloths together.  There are laws which require children be beaten and even executed for talking back to parents.  There are literally thousands of laws which have no bearing on our social structure and shouldn’t.  That we no longer treat one another in such a way is a sign we have progressed.  The preponderance of these laws are sexist assuming male dominance and encouraging abuse of women and children. 

So we must discard much of ancient Rabbinical law because it’s not only irrelevant, it’s wrong.  We are also allowed to keep score – test the significance of an ancient law by seeing how many times it appears.  For instance, there are very few verses from Genesis to Revelation dealing with the subject of homosexuality.  One would think with so few verses the fundamentalists could get it right but they don’t.  About 1/3 of all the verses in scripture address greed, the effects of greed on human society, and the resultant necessity to redistribute wealth on a regular basis.  The ratio of greed verses to homosexuality verses is about 5000 to 1.

Why is there so much space in these ancient manuscripts devoted to the poor?  All types of literature deal with the poor: historical narrative, poetry, stories, and legal code.  The Jubilee Laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy provide the foundation.  With these laws every year the tithe is required as a way of caring for the poor.  Every seven years, in addition to the tithe, debts are to be cancelled and fields are left fallow to be gleaned by the poor. One was required to do that every seven years and then after seven seven-year cycles, a 50th year, the Year of Jubilee, was to be celebrated.  In the 50th year all of the above happens, but also the prisons are emptied and all the land your family had accumulated over the past 50 years had to be returned to the original owner.  It was a way of periodically reordering society and redistributing wealth.  It was based on a fundamental principle that if poverty is allowed to reside in a family for more than two generations, it will eventually destroy the whole society.

Jubilee theology dominates scripture.  The Chronicler suggests the real reason Israel was taken into captivity by the Babylonians was because she had failed to practice the Jubilee.  You may also be familiar with Jesus’ reading of the Isaiah text, “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, the release of the captives, and proclaim the coming of the year of Jubilee.”  He concluded his reading with, “this has happened before you this day.”  So Jesus came to redistribute wealth, empty the prisons, cancel the debts of the poor, and proclaim the coming of the Jubilee.

How much of Jesus teaching was based on the Jubilee?  One of the great Mennonite theologians, John Howard Yoder, suggests it was the centerpiece of his ministry.  What we know as “The Lord’s Prayer” is considered one of the classic Jubilee prayers.  I wonder if Americans would be so inclined to pray, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” if we knew what it really meant.

The point of all this is, 1/3 of all the ancient texts deal with the subject of greed and the need to redistribute wealth as a way of combating poverty.  Currently hundreds of thousands of people in America think all of scripture deals with homosexuality, abortion, and stem cell research.  And it’s because we have ignored these ancient writings and allowed villains to interpret them for the nation.

Let’s look at another literary form, stories.  Now anyone knows that a good story should give us insight into the workings of the human mind and spirit.  A story with staying power, a classic, also points to truth and examines the great questions of life.  The first few chapters of Genesis are filled with stories, classic stories.  There are actually several stories, not just one creation story.  How do we know?  Well, if you have two manuscripts before you, both attributed to Ernest Hemmingway.  But in fact one is authentic and the other was actually written by me.  By the second sentence you would know the two manuscripts were written by two different people.  That’s how scholars know that there are several “creation stories” in Genesis, not just one.

Now, lean back, close your eyes, and imagine an ancient tribe somewhere in the Fertile Crescent.  The tribe was nomadic known as Habiru (Hebrew comes from the word).  They gathered around the campfire sharing stories. One of these ancients asks the question, “where did all this come from?  You know, life, you, me, our ancestors, trees, the wind, light, darkness, the sea, the land, plants, animals.” 

Among those ancient Habiru was a gifted storyteller; every tribe assigned that task to its wisest member.  And from the storyteller comes the words, “In the beginning, the world was without form, and darkness filled the abyss….”  WOW!  Is it any wonder those words stood the test of time and were passed on from village to village, tribe to tribe, and eventually, after centuries of oral tradition, they were written down.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to discuss the holiness of creativity?  Wouldn’t it be so enriching to be discussing the story of the garden and how humanity was not created evil, frightened, violent?  Wouldn’t it be so rich to discuss how that story mandates that we care for our garden, our environment, rather than to destroy it?  The myth of the garden story was a basis for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.  Human creativity flourishes when we have confidence that we were not created evil but created good!  Perhaps you believe, as I do, that such beauty and creativity can only come from God, that such a profound question and creative story could only come from a higher power. 

Examining these ancient manuscripts as art intended to convey truth allows us to value our own creativity.  It allows us to examine the possibility that God’s creative energy didn’t end with the Book of Revelation! 

Is it possible that today’s fundamentalism is nothing more than an attempt to destroy any semblance of creativity and, isn’t it logical then to conclude that what they are really trying to do is destroy God’s continuing work in our world?  Even if you totally disagree with that perspective, at least it’s a more interesting topic than “Did God really only take 6 days?”  Or, “if Adam and Eve were the first people and they had two sons, Cain and Able, where did they get their wives?”  Good God!  We should pass our own law disallowing those questions after we reach 3rd grade. 

I haven’t dealt much with poetry in these ancient writings.  Some were written to be sung, some to be read.  None to be applied literally.  I know we have some excellent poets in this congregation; you know poetry and music as art, not law.

All this is intended to offer a beginning point, a framework for discussion of the question, “how are we to read these ancient manuscripts?”  I hope I’ve given that.  But more than that, I hope I’ve inspired you to reclaim these ancient writings, to take them back from the fundamentalists who seem hell bent on destroying every ounce of creativity we might generate.  These writings have enormous power for people seeking freedom and, in fact, are quite dangerous.  Please respect that as you study them.  I learned just how dangerous they were through the tears of El Salvadorian refugees.

I would like to leave you with one last word.  Fundamentalism has turned the whole of scripture into law – one great big mass of “thou shalts and shalt nots!” Such “law” condemns, it enslaves.  Good old St. Paul actually said just that.  But as you study these manuscripts through creative eyes you will find God calling you to be everything you were created to be (loving, caring, gentle, creative, a peacemaker, a builder of community, a redistributor of wealth, a radical environmentalist).  I hope your studies will inspire you to act, not to be passive, but to act to protect the richness of this creative energy.  It’s that creative energy, which drove Rosa Parks to the front of the bus, Martin Luther King to lead the march, she started, Mahatma Ghandi to lead a non-violent movement, and countless creative spirits, like you, to fight for freedom.  Thank you.

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