tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/old-testament-35391/articlesOld Testament – The Conversation2023-12-18T19:09:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2148492023-12-18T19:09:41Z2023-12-18T19:09:41ZWho wrote the Bible?<p>The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead.</p>
<p>The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BCE) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. </p>
<p>The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement. </p>
<p>During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 CE, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up.</p>
<p>But who wrote the Bible? </p>
<p>Broadly, there are four different theories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>1. God wrote the Bible</h2>
<p>All Christians agree the Bible is authoritative. Many see it as the divinely revealed word of God. But there are significant disagreements about what this means. </p>
<p>At its most extreme, this is taken to mean the words themselves are divinely inspired – God dictated the Bible to its writers, who were merely God’s musicians playing a divine composition. </p>
<p>As early as the second century, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fathersofchurch0000unse/page/382/mode/2up">Christian philosopher Justin Martyr saw it</a> as only necessary for holy men </p>
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<p>to submit their purified persons to the direction of the Holy Spirit, so that this divine plectrum from Heaven, as it were, by using them as a harp or lyre, might reveal to us divine and celestial truths. </p>
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<p>In other words, God dictated the words to the Biblical secretaries, who wrote everything down exactly. </p>
<p>This view continued with the medieval Catholic church. Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas put it simply in the 13th century: “the author of Holy Writ is God”. He <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP_Q1_A10.html">qualified this</a> by saying each word in Holy Writ could have several senses – in other words, it could be variously interpreted. </p>
<p>The religious reform movement known as Protestantism swept through Europe in the 1500s. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">A new group of churches formed</a> alongside the existing Catholic and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy">Eastern Orthodox</a> traditions of Christianity. </p>
<p>Protestants emphasised the authority of “scripture alone” (“sola scriptura”), meaning the text of the Bible was the supreme authority over the church. This gave greater emphasis to the scriptures and the idea of “divine dictation” got more support. </p>
<p>So, for example, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924029273996&seq=254">Protestant reformer John Calvin declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[we] are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protestant reformer John Calvin believed in ‘divine dictation’.</span>
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<p>“Divine dictation” was linked to the idea that the Bible was without error (inerrant) – because the words were dictated by God. </p>
<p>Generally, over the first 1,700 years of Christian history, this was assumed, if not argued for. But from the 18th century on, both history and science began to cast doubts on the truth of the Bible. And what had once been taken as fact came to be treated as myth and legend. </p>
<p>The impossibility of any sort of error in the scriptures became a doctrine at the forefront of the 20th-century movement known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>. The <a href="https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy/">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978</a> declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bible-helped-shape-australian-culture-96265">How the Bible helped shape Australian culture</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. God inspired the writers: conservative</h2>
<p>An alternative to the theory of divine dictation is the divine inspiration of the writers. Here, both God and humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible. So, not the words, but the authors were inspired by God. </p>
<p>There are two versions of this theory, dating from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">Reformation</a>. The conservative version, favoured by Protestantism, was: though the Bible was written by humans, God was a dominant force in the partnership. </p>
<p>Protestants believed the sovereignty of God overruled human freedom. But even the Reformers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin">John Calvin</a>, recognised variation within the Biblical stories could be put down to human agency.</p>
<p>Catholics were more inclined to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty. Some flirted with the idea human authorship was at play, with God only intervening to prevent mistakes. </p>
<p>For example, in 1625, <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/46/mode/2up">Jacques Bonfrère said</a> the Holy Spirit acts: “not by dictating or inbreathing, but as one keeps an eye on another while he is writing, to keep him from slipping into errors”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catholics were more inclined than Protestants to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the early 1620s, the Archbishop of Split, Marcantonio de Dominis, went a little further. He distinguished between those parts of the Bible revealed to the writers by God and those that weren’t. In the latter, he believed, errors could occur. </p>
<p>His view was supported some 200 years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Henry-Newman">John Henry Newman</a>, who led the Oxford movement in the Church of England and later became a cardinal (and then a saint) in the Roman Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Newman argued the divinely inspired books of the Bible were interspersed with human additions. In other words, the Bible was inspired in matters of faith and morals – but not, say, in matters of science and history. It was hard, at times, to distinguish this conservative view from “divine dictation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">Friday essay: The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. God inspired the writers: liberal</h2>
<p>During the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic circles, the conservative theory was being overtaken by a more liberal view. The writers of the Bible were inspired by God, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/186/mode/2up">they were “children of their time”</a>, their writings determined by the cultural contexts in which they wrote. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century depiction from the gospels of Matthew and Mark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This view, while recognising the special status of the Bible for Christians, allowed for errors. For example, in 1860 <a href="https://archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft/page/n359/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=inspir">the Anglican theologian Benjamin Jowett declared</a>: “any true doctrine of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of history or of science”.</p>
<p>For Jowett, to hold to the truth of the Bible against the discoveries of science or history was to do a disservice to religion. At times, though, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a liberal view of inspiration and there being no meaning to “inspiration” at all.</p>
<p>In 1868, a conservative Catholic church pushed back against the more liberal view, declaring God’s direct authorship of the Bible. The Council of the Church known as Vatican 1 <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm.">declared</a> both the Old and New Testaments were: “written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-spite-of-their-differences-jews-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-83102">In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>4. People wrote it, with no divine help</h2>
<p>Within the most liberal Christian circles, by the end of the 19th century, the notion of the Bible as “divinely inspired” had lost any meaning. </p>
<p>Liberal Christians could join their secular colleagues in ignoring questions of the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy or infallibility. The idea of the Bible as a human production was now accepted. And the question of who wrote it was now comparable to questions about the authorship of any other ancient text. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eve in the Garden of Eden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The simple answer to “who wrote the Bible?” became: the authors named in the Bible (for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the authors of the four Gospels). But the idea of the Bible’s authorship is complex and problematic. (So are historical studies of ancient texts more generally.)</p>
<p>This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors. </p>
<p>The content of the 39 books of the Old Testament is the same as the 24 books of the Jewish <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew-Bible">Hebrew Bible</a>. Within modern Old Testament studies, it’s now generally accepted that the books were not the production of a single author, but the result of long and changing histories of the stories’ transmission. </p>
<p>The question of authorship, then, is not about an individual writer, but multiple authors, editors, scribes and redactors – along with multiple different versions of the texts. </p>
<p>It’s much the same with the New Testament. While 13 Letters are attributed to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle">Saint Paul</a>, there are doubts about his authorship of seven of them (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews). There are also disputes over the traditional authorship of a number of the remaining Letters. The book of Revelation was traditionally ascribed to Jesus’s disciple John. But it is now generally agreed he was not its author. </p>
<p>Traditionally, the authors of the four <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament">Gospels</a> were thought to be the apostles Matthew and John, Mark (the companion of Jesus’s disciple Peter), and Luke (the companion of Paul, who spread Christianity to the Greco-Roman world in the first century). But the anonymously written Gospels weren’t attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries. </p>
<p>The dates of the Gospels’ creation also suggests they were not written by eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life. The earliest Gospel, Mark (65-70 CE) was written some 30 years after the death of Jesus (from 29-34 CE). The last Gospel, John (90-100 CE) was written some 60-90 years after the death of Jesus. </p>
<p>It’s clear the author of the Gospel of Mark drew on traditions circulating in the early church about the life and teaching of Jesus and brought them together in the form of ancient biography. </p>
<p>In turn, the Gospel of Mark served as the principal source for the authors of Matthew and Luke. Each of these authors had access to a common source (known as “Q”) of the sayings of Jesus, along with material unique to each of them. </p>
<p>In short, there were many (unknown) authors of the Gospels.</p>
<p>Interestingly, another group of texts, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">Apocrypha</a>, were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments (400 BCE to the first century CE). The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions consider them part of the Bible, but Protestant churches don’t consider them authoritative.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-traditional-christian-doctrine-of-hell-119380">5 things to know about the traditional Christian doctrine of hell</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Divine or human: why does it matter?</h2>
<p>The question of who wrote the Bible matters because the Christian quarter of the world’s population believe the Bible is a not merely a human production. </p>
<p>Divinely inspired, it has a transcendent significance. As such, it provides for Christians an ultimate understanding of how the world is, what history means and how human life should be lived. </p>
<p>It matters because the Biblical worldview is the hidden (and often not-so-hidden) cause of economic, social and personal practices. It remains, as it has always been, a major source of both peace and conflict. </p>
<p>It matters, too, because the Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has formed, informed and shaped all of us – whether consciously or unconsciously, for good or ill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has shaped all of us. But who wrote it? The answer is complicated.Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994242023-02-09T09:05:11Z2023-02-09T09:05:11ZWhat does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508641/original/file-20230207-21-ed2xy3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/">reportedly replied</a>:</p>
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<p>This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.</p>
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<p>This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive leader</a> when it comes to, among other things, gay Catholics. </p>
<p>It’s a stance that has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">drawn the ire</a> of some high-ranking bishops and ordinary Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it? </p>
<p>Scripture is particularly important for Christians. When church leaders refer to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually mean “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. The Bible is always interpreted by our churches through their particular theological lenses. </p>
<p>As a biblical scholar, I would suggest that church leaders who use their cultures and theology to exclude homosexuals don’t read Scripture carefully. Instead, they allow their patriarchal fears to distort it, seeking to find in the Bible proof-texts that will support attitudes of exclusion. </p>
<p>There are several instances in the Bible that underscore my point.</p>
<h2>Love of God and neighbour</h2>
<p>Mark’s Gospel, found in the New Testament, records that Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple on three occasions. First, he visited briefly, and “looked around at everything” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.11">11:11</a>). </p>
<p>On the second visit he acted, driving “out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.15">11:15</a>). Jesus specifically targeted those who exploited the poorest of the people coming to the temple. </p>
<p>On his third visit, Jesus spent considerable time in the temple itself (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.11.NIV">11:27-13:2</a>). He met the full array of temple leadership, including chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Each of these leadership sectors used their interpretation of Scripture to exclude rather than to include. </p>
<p>The “ordinary people” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.32">11:32</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.12.12">12:12</a>) recognised that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of inclusion. They eagerly embraced him as he walked through the temple. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/100/MRK.12.24.NASB1995">Mark 12:24</a>, Jesus addresses the Sadducees, who were the traditional high priests of ancient Israel and played an important role in the temple. Among those who confronted Jesus, they represented the group that held to a conservative theological position and used their interpretation of the Scripture to exclude. Jesus said to them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus recognised that they chose to interpret Scripture in a way that prevented it from being understood in non-traditional ways. Thus they limited God’s power to be different from traditional understandings of him. Jesus was saying God refused to be the exclusive property of the Sadducees. The ordinary people who followed Jesus understood that he represented a different understanding of God.</p>
<p>This message of inclusion becomes even clearer when Jesus is later confronted by a single scribe (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/100/mrk.12.28">12:28</a>). In answer to the scribe’s question on the most important laws, Jesus summarised the theological ethic of his gospel: love of God and love of neighbour (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.12.NIV">12:29-31</a>).</p>
<h2>Inclusion, not exclusion</h2>
<p>Those who would exclude homosexuals from God’s kingdom choose to ignore Jesus, turning instead to the Old Testament – most particularly to <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV">Genesis 19</a>, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their interpretation of the story is that it is about homosexuality. It isn’t. It relates to hospitality.</p>
<p>The story begins in <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.18.NIV">Genesis 18</a> when three visitors (God and two angels, appearing as “men”) came before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham">Abraham</a>, a Hebrew patriarch. What did Abraham and his wife Sarah do? They offered hospitality. </p>
<p>The two angels then left Abraham and the Lord and travelled into <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">Sodom (19:1)</a> where they met Lot, Abraham’s nephew. What did Lot do? He offered hospitality. The two incidents of hospitality are explained in exactly the same language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">“men of Sodom” (19:4)</a>, as the Bible describes them, didn’t offer the same hospitality to these angels in disguise. Instead they sought to humiliate them (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">and Lot (19:9)</a>) by threatening to rape them. We know they were heterosexual because Lot, in attempting to protect himself and his guests, offered his virgin daughters to them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">(19:8)</a>. </p>
<p>Heterosexual rape of men by men is a common act of humiliation. This is an extreme form of inhospitality. The story contrasts extreme hospitality (Abraham and Lot) with the extreme inhospitality of the men of Sodom. It is a story of inclusion, not exclusion. Abraham and Lot included the strangers; the men of Sodom excluded them.</p>
<h2>Clothed in Christ</h2>
<p>When confronted by the inclusive gospel of Jesus and a careful reading of the story of Sodom as one about hospitality, those who disavow Pope Francis’s approach will likely jump to other Scriptures. Why? Because they have a patriarchal agenda and are looking for any Scripture that might support their position.</p>
<p>But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.18.22">Leviticus 18:22</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.20.13">20:13</a>, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex. These texts are about relationships that cross boundaries of purity (between clean and unclean) and ethnicity (Israelite and Canaanite). </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NRSVUE">Galatians 3:28</a> in the New Testament, Paul the apostle yearns for a Christian community where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul built his theological argument on the Jew-Greek distinction, but then extended it to the slave-free distinction and the male-female distinction. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Paul and extend it to the heterosexual-homosexual distinction. </p>
<p>We are all “clothed in Christ” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/gal.3.27">3:27</a>): God only sees Christ, not our different sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald West does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those who exclude any groups of people from God’s kingdom choose to ignore the teaching of Jesus.Gerald West, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1806522022-09-15T12:18:22Z2022-09-15T12:18:22ZDebates about migration have never been simple – just look at the Hebrew Bible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481224/original/file-20220826-26-etgu94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C1014%2C669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Departure for Canaan,' a detail of a 13th-century mosaic from the dome of Abraham in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/departure-for-canaan-mosaic-detail-from-the-dome-of-abraham-news-photo/170915184?adppopup=true">De Agostini Photo Library/De Agostini via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today, the Bible is often invoked during public debates about immigration. From former Attorney General <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/romans-13/562916/">Jeff Sessions</a> to <a href="https://www.hias.org/2000rabbis">a group of 2,000 rabbis</a>, people have referred to the Bible to explain their differing positions on immigration and refugees. <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-paul-and-the-border-debate-why-cherry-picking-bible-passages-misses-the-immigrant-experience-in-ancient-rome-155021">Several specialists</a> in biblical studies <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/what-does-the-bible-say-about-strangers-migrants-and-refugees/">have spoken and written</a> about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/10/franklin-graham-said-immigration-is-not-a-bible-issue-heres-what-the-bible-says/">what the text says on the topic</a>.</p>
<p>One thing is clear: Migration matters in the Bible. Stories about it are common – from the Book of Genesis, where the patriarch Abraham obeys God’s command <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+12-22&version=NRSVUE">to leave his homeland in Mesopotamia</a>, to the Moabite woman Ruth, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ruth+1%3A6-20&version=NRSVUE">who migrates to Bethlehem</a> out of love for her Judean mother-in-law, Naomi, to the Jews’ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+137&version=NRSVUE">forced migration</a> to Babylonia.</p>
<p>But these many voices do not necessarily boil down to a single theology or ethical framework. As <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/info/23704/theology_faculty">a scholar of the Hebrew Bible</a>, I study how themes of migration mattered in the making of scripture, as well as in how the text has been circulated, debated and interpreted by readers across the globe. </p>
<p>Discussions about migration are always complicated, because migrants’ <a href="https://www.iamanimmigrant.com/stories/">real-life experiences</a> do not easily translate into simple bureaucratic categories.</p>
<p>Modern societies defined by the ideas of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/591580">citizenship</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1895672">borders</a> tend to classify modern migrants into legal binaries, each with its own rights and restrictions: <a href="https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc851">resident vs. nonresident</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/undocumented_immigrant">documented vs. undocumented</a>, <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waiver-program/requirements-immigrant-and-nonimmigrant-visas">immigrant vs. nonimmigrant</a>. Ancient Israel, too, relied on legal categories to try to make sense of migration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows two women in robes embracing in the desert, while another woman looks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ruth and Naomi’ (1886), by Philip Hermogenes Calderon, shows Ruth embracing her mother-in-law, Naomi, and pleading to go to Bethlehem with her.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ruth-and-naomi-ruth-embracing-her-mother-in-law-naomi-with-news-photo/1160945835?adppopup=true">Photo by The Print Collector/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ancient Israelite law</h2>
<p>The Hebrew Bible’s legal passages discuss people who have come to Israel from other places and how they should be treated. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2024%3A14&version=NRSVUE">prescribes a law</a> that protects poor and destitute workers from being exploited, no matter if they are fellow Israelites or not.</p>
<p>There are two Hebrew terms that recognize different kinds of strangers in the community, with differing status and privileges.</p>
<p>The first, “ger,” can be translated as “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/foreigner-and-the-law-perspectives-from-the-hebrew-bible-and-the-ancient-near-east/oclc/758877753&referer=brief_results">resident alien</a>.” In other words, it is a legal category for people who are not “citizens,” in the language used today, but who have permission to reside there. In the Hebrew Bible, the term does not distinguish between voluntary immigrants and forced refugees.</p>
<p>People in the “ger” category are embraced as part of the Israelite community. For example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A14&version=NRSVUE">law in the Book of Numbers</a> dictates that the “ger” are eligible to participate in a sacrificial ritual to the God of Israel, just like the locals.</p>
<p>The Book of Numbers further protects the “ger” by stipulating that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A15-16&version=NRSVUE">there will be one law</a> for both the Israelites and the immigrants throughout the generations. Whether locals or not, they are equally subject to the rules about offerings and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus+17%3A8-15&version=NRSVUE">other standards for holiness</a>. When the community makes an offering as atonement for sin, the immigrant population <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A24-31&version=NRSVUE">is also considered forgiven</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, migrants called “nokri” – commonly translated as “foreigner” – have a more restricted social status. Deuteronomy <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2023&version=NRSVUE">prohibits Israelites from charging interest</a> on loans to a fellow Israelite, but not to “nokri.” Likewise, the law commands Israelites to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+15%3A1-3&version=NRSVUE">forgive each other’s debts</a> every seventh year, but not debts of “nokri.”</p>
<h2>Strangers themselves</h2>
<p>The Hebrew Bible’s view on strangers is not just about dealing with others. Biblical ideas about foreignness are forged through the Israelites’ own experiences and collective memories about being strangers.</p>
<p>In the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, a main reason to protect strangers is repeatedly given: Because Israelites themselves <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy+10%3A19&version=NRSVUE">were “ger” in the land of Egypt</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows men pulling a wagon with a heavy statue of a lion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Israel in Egypt’ (1867), by Edward John Poynter, imagines a biblical scene of Israelite slaves constructing cities in Egypt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israel-in-egypt-1867-dramatic-scene-set-in-ancient-egypt-news-photo/464477583?adppopup=true">Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The many meanings of foreignness are also explored in biblical literature from after the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Some groups returned to the land of Judah, some remained in Babylon and some had never left in the first place.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%201&version=NRSVUE">The Book of Esther</a>, for example, concerns the life of the diaspora community living in Persia. The story unfolds mainly through the actions of Queen Esther, who carries a dual identity as a Jew and as a Persian, and its central themes deal with the struggle to survive in a foreign land.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the protagonists in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are repatriates who had previously lived in Mesopotamia, but encountered a new sense of foreignness upon their return. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=nehemiah+13%3A23-25&version=NRSVUE">Nehemiah Chapter 13</a> describes Nehemiah’s shock when he learns that Jews had married women from surrounding cultures, and half of their children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065809-007">only spoke other languages</a>.</p>
<p>The Bible speaks about migration with many different voices – even beyond its pages. Migrant communities across the globe have continued to read and interpret it <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/latinxs-the-bible-and-migration/oclc/1194467037&referer=brief_results">through the lens of their own experiences</a> ever since, opening up new possibilities for understanding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ki-Eun Jang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Bible is full of stories about migrants. That doesn’t mean it has a simple takeaway message about them.Ki-Eun Jang, Assistant Professor of Theology (Bible in Global Cultures), Fordham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1789472022-03-10T13:25:21Z2022-03-10T13:25:21ZRussian church leader puts the blame of invasion on those who flout ‘God’s law,’ but taking biblical law out of its historical context doesn’t work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451033/original/file-20220309-30-92b50z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C13%2C4385%2C3091&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Patriarch of Russia Kirill and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (in background), at a monastery outside Moscow in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-president-vladimir-putin-accompanied-by-patriarch-news-photo/874480208?adppopup=true">Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moscow-patriarch-stokes-orthodox-tensions-war-remarks-83322338">preached a sermon</a> on March 6, 2022, in which he suggested the violation of “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/russian-orthodox-church-leader-blames-invasion-ukraines-gay-pride-1685636">God’s law</a>” provided divine license for the war against Ukraine. </p>
<p>In particular, Kirill pointed to Ukrainian acceptance of gay rights and the promotion of <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/blaming-russias-ukraine-invasion-on-the-gays-putin-patriarch-kirill/">gay pride parades</a> as specific examples of behavior that goes against God’s law. “This is a sin that is condemned by the Word of God - both the Old and the New Testament,” <a href="http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5906442.html">he said during his sermon</a>.</p>
<p>Yet few readers of the Bible realize that the laws in biblical times worked differently than today. </p>
<h2>Legal collections in the ancient world</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://colorado.academia.edu/SamBoyd">research</a> on the Bible and its legal material, I have come to the conclusion that much of the modern debate about the Bible in political discourse could be ascribed to mistaken literary genres.</p>
<p>For example, laws from the Code of Hammurabi, an often-cited legal collection from King Hammurabi of ancient Babylon, have the familiar structure of modern, practiced law: If someone does something wrong, then that person is guilty according to the details of the law.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A relief showing King Hammurabi standing before a seated god of justice, Shamash." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stele of Hammurabi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F0182_Louvre_Code_Hammourabi_Bas-relief_Sb8_rwk.jpg">Department of Near Eastern Antiquities of the Louvre, Iraq, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Hammurabi himself <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3684684.html">rarely referenced</a> the collection. At times, his own royal decrees were in violation of what the inscription says should happen.</p>
<p>The Code of Hammurabi was not simply a reflection of law in everyday Mesopotamia. Instead, it was likely a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">collection</a> of possible legal cases and scenarios assembled by royal scribes. </p>
<p>These cases demonstrate a range of hypothetical legal responses that could ensure maximal justice in society. They may <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">resemble</a> real law, but they are not a direct representation of what happened in every case. </p>
<p>The laws were placed on a rock monument that contained an image of King Hammurabi seated before the god of justice, Shamash. The presentation of these laws on the inscription was for the purpose of making the king look good through <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">propaganda</a>, but, as research shows, not in order to codify practiced law. </p>
<p>Scholars believe that the Code of Hammurabi influenced some of the legal collections in the Bible, such as in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-gods-law-9780195304756?cc=us&lang=en&">book of Exodus</a>, the second book of the Bible traditionally attributed to Moses. There is evidence that, like Hammurabi’s law code, laws in the Bible were not necessarily practiced. </p>
<p>For example, a law in the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2021%3A18-21&version=NIV">Deuteronomy</a>, the fifth book of the Bible, also believed to have been written by Moses, says that if a son is persistently rebellious against his parents and gets drunk, the parents will bring the son to the town elders. The men of the town then stone the son to death.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/bi/28/1/article-p15_2.xml">what counts</a> as “rebellious,” and how drunk would qualify the son to be deemed guilty? </p>
<p>The Bible does not say. <a href="https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/294/294_neverwas.pdf">Ancient rabbis</a> viewed the passage as not able to be practiced at all. The prophet Jeremiah applied the law <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198266995.001.0001/acprof-9780198266990">metaphorically</a> to Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 B.C., but there is no evidence that the law was actually practiced.</p>
<p>There is another story of one ancient rabbi, <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047423096/Bej.9789004162921.i-836_044.xml">Hananiah ben Hezekiah</a>, who locked himself in his room, burning 300 barrels of oil to keep his light on in order to figure out how the laws of the Bible worked together. This incredible amount of exertion highlights how different these laws actually are and how they cannot be reconciled into one simple legal vision.</p>
<h2>Laws, the Bible and ancient Israel</h2>
<p>While there is evidence that some sense of legal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27924979?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">reality</a> in ancient Israel looked like some of the biblical laws, the relationship was not exact.</p>
<p>It seems, instead, that the genre of <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6865/an-introduction-to-biblical-law.aspx">legal collections</a> in the Bible functioned according to the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/theory-and-method-in-biblical-and-cuneiform-law-9780567353214/">literary conventions</a> of its day. </p>
<p>The fact that laws in the Bible look like other ancient Near Eastern laws does not mean that the laws in the Bible have no unique features. Scholars have noted an <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/legal-revision-and-religious-renewal-in-ancient-israel/6C15540D333A89CA590C3F27A4D35692">innovation</a> that occurred in the laws in the Bible: There is no king who acts as the lawgiver.</p>
<p>All of the other laws in the ancient Near East were given by the king. The Mesopotamian god of justice, Shamash, endowed Hammurabi with wisdom, but Hammurabi himself derived the laws. </p>
<p>Yet the earliest legal collection in the Bible, in the book of Exodus, lacks the role of the king as a lawgiver for the first time in the history of the ancient Near East. The biblical laws, instead, come directly from God.</p>
<p>The original intent of some of these legal collections may have been to emphasize the need for freedom against <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-gods-law-9780195304756?cc=us&lang=en&">larger dominant imperial forces</a>. They were used as statements expressing convictions about justice, divinity and society, but without recourse to ancient Near Eastern kings. </p>
<p>In fact, one law in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2017%3A14-20&version=NIV">Deuteronomy</a> relegates the king to a much <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300167511/deuteronomy-and-pentateuch">smaller role</a> than royalty otherwise occupied in ancient society. This law stipulates that the primary job of a king is to study the legal material in the Bible. It also commands that the king not act arrogantly toward other Israelites.</p>
<p>Given these historical observations, “God’s law,” at least in the Bible, limits royal authority and provides a statement against imperialism, all of which would seem to undermine Kirill’s use of divine statutes to promote war and support Putin’s agenda. </p>
<p>But one can only see such functions of these laws when understood in their ancient context.</p>
<h2>How and when the perception changed</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mosaic showing Roman Emperor Justinian flanked by two men on either side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Byzantine Emperor Justinian brought about legal reforms in the sixth century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/detail-of-byzantine-mosaic-of-emperor-justinian-and-royalty-free-image/583742730?adppopup=true">Richard T. Nowitz/Collection The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The modern sense of legal collections as practiced law derives in some manner from the legacy of the Byzantine Emperor <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-age-of-justinian/AFDFB4B6F50063DE2A3B4A7115E17D6E">Justinian</a>. He inaugurated an expansive <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593309.001.0001/acprof-9780199593309">legal reform</a> in the Roman Empire in the sixth century. </p>
<p>It included precepts such as “innocent until proved guilty,” which would become a maxim for many later legal systems, such as the notion of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” in America. </p>
<p>Modern Christian thinkers tried to identify three enduring uses of the law in the Bible, the <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/threefold-use-law">second</a> of which applies a civil relevance to these statutes. The idea is that when a civil code that includes God’s laws is used in society, it should, in theory, curb evil.</p>
<p>One can find such sentiments in statements by modern legislators in America, such as Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s comments at The King’s College in New York in a <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/june-web-only/age-of-pelagius-joshua-hawley.html">commencement address</a> in 2019. </p>
<p>There, he blamed what in his view is America’s current moral bankruptcy on a fourth-century Christian belief called Pelagianism that highlights free will in humanity. </p>
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<p>Hawley claimed that such a Pelagian attitude was at the root of a 1992 court case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the individual was ruled to have the “right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” </p>
<p>For Hawley, this sentiment contradicts the belief that all humanity should be subject to God’s rule, evidenced in the need for a personal relationship with God.</p>
<p>For Kirill, the use of “God’s law” in the war in Ukraine is an attempt to provide a divine mandate for Putin’s actions. Yet such a claim presupposes that biblical law was enacted in history and should be implemented in modern society. </p>
<p>Moreover, this sort of argument envisions a legal authority over Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church, a claim that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-church-conflict-in-ukraine-reflects-historic-russian-ukrainian-tensions-175818">vigorously contested</a> by many who think that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be independent from oversight in Moscow.</p>
<p>Yet the Bible’s laws and its vision of society were more complex than such a direct application that Kirill in Russia or Hawley in the U.S. advocate. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-translating-gods-law-to-government-law-isnt-easy-177310">was first published on March 1, 2022</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Bible and its laws were complex and not practiced in the way many of us think about laws today.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522882021-04-21T12:24:40Z2021-04-21T12:24:40ZFamine in the Bible is more than a curse: It is a signal of change and a chance for a new beginning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395847/original/file-20210419-17-n0utk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2882%2C3978%2C2084&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The famine in Samaria was one of many depicted in the Bible.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/old-testament-the-famine-in-samaria-bible-engraving-by-news-photo/601071886?adppopup=true">PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world last year, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hunger-coronavirus-pandemic-antonio-guterres-famine-covid-19-pandemic-d2c3634a9ceaff7fa6324a63eb158c85">United Nations warned that the economic disruption of the pandemic could result in famines</a> of “biblical proportions.”</p>
<p>The choice of words conveys more than just scale. Biblical stories of devastating famines are familiar to many. As a <a href="https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/joel-s-baden">scholar of the Hebrew Bible</a>, I understand that famines in biblical times were interpreted as more than mere natural occurrences. The authors of the Hebrew Bible used famine as a mechanism of divine wrath and destruction – but also as a storytelling device, a way to move the narrative forward.</p>
<h2>When the heavens don’t open</h2>
<p>Underlying the texts about famine in the Hebrew Bible was the constant threat and recurring reality of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/famine-and-drought-in-israel">famine in ancient Israel</a>.</p>
<p>Israel occupied the rocky highlands of Canaan – the area of present-day Jerusalem and the hills to the north of it – rather than fertile coastal plains. Even in the best of years, it took <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=teYfEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA149&dq=famine+in+the+bible&ots=Asdo55GcXY&sig=P0VcLiCcc7OKQ7I_3RAjC4c-UKI#v=onepage&q=famine%20in%20the%20bible&f=false">enormous effort to coax sufficient sustenance out of the ground</a>. The rainy seasons were brief; any precipitation less than normal could be devastating. </p>
<p>Across the ancient Near East, drought and famine were feared. In the 13th century B.C., nearly all of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/131024-drought-bronze-age-pollen-archaeology">collapsed because of a prolonged drought</a>.</p>
<p>For the biblical authors, rain was a blessing and drought a curse – quite literally. In the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/28-12.htm">God proclaims</a> that if Israel obeys the laws, “the Lord will open for you his bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season.”</p>
<p>Disobedience, however, <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/28-24.htm">will have the opposite effect</a>: “The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out.” </p>
<p>To ancient Israelites there was no such thing as nature as we understand it today and no such thing as chance. If things were good, it was because God was happy. If things were going badly, it was because the deity was angry. For a national catastrophe like famine, the sin had to lie either with the entire people, or with the monarchs who represented them. And it was the task of <a href="https://www.bibleodyssey.org/HarperCollinsBibleDictionary/o/oracle">prophets and oracles</a> to determine the cause of the divine wrath. </p>
<h2>Divine anger…and punishment</h2>
<p>Famine was seen as both punishment and opportunity. Suffering opened the door for repentance and change. For example, when the famously wise King Solomon inaugurates the temple in Jerusalem, he prays that God will be forgiving when, in the future, a famine-stricken Israel turns toward the newly built temple for mercy. </p>
<p>The Bible’s association of famine and other natural disasters with divine anger and punishment paved the way for faith leaders throughout the ages to use their pulpits to cast blame on those they found morally wanting. Preachers during the Dust Bowl of 1920s and 1930s America held alcohol and immorality <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1800&context=greatplainsquarterly">responsible for provoking God’s anger</a>. In 2005, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953778_1953776_1953771,00.html">televangelist Pat Robertson blamed abortion for Hurricane Katrina</a>. Today some religious leaders have even <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200309160852-fvwh5/">assigned responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic</a> to LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>In the book of Samuel, we <a href="https://biblehub.com/2_samuel/21-1.htm">read that Israel endured a three-year famine</a> in the time of David, considered Israel’s greatest king. When David inquires as to the cause of the famine, he is told that it is due to the sins of his predecessor and mortal enemy, Saul. The story illustrates how biblical authors, like modern moral crusaders, used the opportunity of famine to demonize their opponents. </p>
<p>For the biblical writers interested in legislating and prophesying about Israel’s behavior, famine was both an ending – the result of disobedience and sin – and also a beginning, a potential turning point toward a better, more faithful future. </p>
<p>Other biblical authors, however, focused less on how or why famines happened and more on the opportunities that famine provided for telling new stories.</p>
<h2>Seeking refuge</h2>
<p>Famine as a narrative device – rather than as a theological tool – is found regularly throughout the Bible. The writers of the Hebrew Bible used famine as the motivating factor for major changes in the lives of its characters – undoubtedly reflecting the reality of famine’s impact in the ancient world.</p>
<p>We see this numerous times in the book of Genesis. For example, famine <a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/12-10.htm">drives the biblical characters of Abraham to Egypt</a>, <a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/26-1.htm">Isaac to the land of the Philistines</a> and <a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/43-2.htm">Jacob and his entire family to Egypt</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://forward.com/life/447355/the-book-of-ruth-famine-pandemic/">book of Ruth opens with a famine</a> that forces Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, and her family to move first to, and then away from, Moab.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An engraving depicts Naomi instructing her daughter-in-law Ruth to leave with Orpah, her other daughter-in-law, from the book of Ruth, in the Old Testament." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395850/original/file-20210419-21-1yk3ynd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Naomi instructs her daughter-in-law Ruth to leave after famine struck.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-1000-bc-naomi-instructing-her-daughter-in-law-ruth-to-news-photo/51243480?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The story of Ruth depends on the initial famine; it ends with Ruth being the ancestor of King David. Neither the Exodus nor King David – the central story and a major character of the Hebrew Bible – would exist without famine.</p>
<p>All of these stories share a common feature: famine as an impetus for the movement of people. And with that movement, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/strangers-and-gentiles">in the ancient world</a> as today, comes vulnerability. Residing in a foreign land meant abandoning social protections: land and kin, and perhaps even deity. One was at the mercy of the local populace.</p>
<p>This is why Israel, at least, had a <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/immigration-and-biblical-law-stranger">wide range of laws</a> intended to protect the stranger. It was understood that famine, or plague, or war, was common enough that anyone might be forced to leave their land to seek refuge in another. The principle of hospitality, <a href="https://www.arabamerica.com/hospitality-in-the-arab-world/">still common in the region</a>, ensured that the displaced would be protected.</p>
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<p>Famine was a constant threat and a very real part of life for the ancient Israelite world that produced the Hebrew Bible. The ways that the Bible understood and addressed famine, in turn, have had a lasting impact down to the present. Most people today may not see famine as a manifestation of divine wrath. But they might recognize in famine the same opportunities to consider how we treat the displaced, and to imagine a better future.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Baden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Famine was a constant threat during biblical times. The authors of the Old Testament used it to explain God’s wrath, but also as a narrative device.Joel Baden, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1570872021-03-24T19:17:39Z2021-03-24T19:17:39ZThis Passover, as in the past, will be a time to recognize tragedies and offer hope for the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390468/original/file-20210318-13-cnrn92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C24%2C5398%2C3497&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Jewish family gathers in person and over video conferencing for Passover celebrations in 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sarah-and-aaron-sanders-celebrate-a-passover-seder-with-news-photo/1217699457?adppopup=true">Ezra Shaw/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jewish families will gather for Passover this year in circumstances that will, like the celebration itself, reflect on dark times while looking ahead toward better ones to come.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-2021/">holiday</a> lasts from the evening of April 15 to the evening of April 23 in 2022. The <a href="https://www.almanac.com/content/when-start-passover">first two nights</a> of the celebration involve a Seder, a ritual meal bringing together the family.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://colorado.academia.edu/SamBoyd">scholar of the Bible and ancient Judaism</a>, I believe Passover is a particularly poignant time to recognize the tragedies of the past year and offer hope for the future.</p>
<h2>Passover story</h2>
<p>The Passover is a festival found in the Bible that commemorates the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from Egypt as recounted in the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691169545/the-book-of-exodus">book of Exodus</a>. Prior to the departure of the enslaved Israelites, God delivered a <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/vt/61/4/article-p657_8.xml?rskey=xAFLmc&result=1">series of plagues</a> on Egypt, culminating in the killing of the firstborn son in every Egyptian family, including the firstborn of the livestock.</p>
<p>The Israelites, however, place the blood of a lamb on their doorposts to signal that the “<a href="https://www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?search_key=9789042924673&series_number_str=1&lang=en">destroyer</a>,” an angel responsible for the killing, should skip, or pass over, those homes. </p>
<p>This story came to function as a powerful narrative of <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300253030/founding-gods-nation">persecution and liberation</a> for Jewish people. The command to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24752903">celebrate and remember</a> the exodus from Egypt and the Passover for future generations is encoded in the Bible itself: according to the book of Exodus, God commands Moses, even prior to their departure from Egypt, that the Israelites and their descendants are to commemorate this event.</p>
<p>The celebration of the Passover includes a script, called the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691144986/the-passover-haggadah">Passover Haggadah</a>. The Haggadah contains ancient rituals, some of which may have been practiced as early as the second century A.D., though the full script exists in later, medieval manuscripts. </p>
<h2>Story of the four sons</h2>
<p>Today, many families also create their <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-to-make-your-own-passover-haggadah/">own versions</a> of the Haggadah, offering celebrations of the Passover that infuse <a href="https://thejewishnews.com/2020/03/31/making-passover-personal-with-homemade-haggadot/">personal and family</a> experiences.</p>
<p>Each member of the family plays certain roles, as found in the biblical story. This enactment of parts of the Exodus narrative fuses the present moment with the past, encouraging each participant to imagine themselves as part of the first generation to leave Egypt. </p>
<p>Some characters not found explicitly in the biblical text were also added to the Haggadah script. Prominent among them is an addition from the ninth century A.D. – a story about <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/lessons-four-children-seder">the four sons or children</a> - the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who does not know what to ask. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9934790503503681">versions varied</a>, but the characters became a prominent part of the celebration. In many families today, they are called “children” or “daughters,” allowing for the inclusion of all members of the family regardless of gender. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-four-sons-how-the-midrash-developed">These characters</a> were inspired by <a href="http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/3747/1/Assmann_Exodus_and_Memory_2015.pdf">a variety of biblical and rabbinic sources</a> in which children ask certain questions about the celebration of the Passover. In the case of the son who does not know what to ask, the parent directly tells the child about the importance of the exodus without waiting for the question. </p>
<p>The Bible speaks of interactions between parents and children, but does not label the children in a specific manner. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=029__uuKYBI">main purpose</a> is telling, examining and passing on the significance of the exodus from a number of different perspectives. The distinct roles of each child encourage the participants to reflect, in different ways, on the significance of liberation and how to communicate it to future generations. </p>
<p>Almost like a <a href="https://www.aish.com/h/pes/t/g/The-Passover-Time-Machine.html">time machine</a>, then, the Haggadah and celebration of Passover incorporates the manner in which history, the present and the future relate to one another. This unfolding of <a href="https://www.jweekly.com/2019/04/18/on-passover-remembering-the-past-means-imagining-the-future/">all dimensions of time</a> allows those who celebrate to remember tragedies and loss in the past while also generating a real sense of hope for the future. </p>
<h2>Flexibility and adaptation</h2>
<p>According to many parts of the Bible, the Passover festival was to occur once a year, and only <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deuteronomy-and-the-hermeneutics-of-legal-innovation-9780195112801?cc=us&lang=en&">in Jerusalem</a> where the temple to the Israelite deity existed. </p>
<p>The celebration of Passover evolved into a home-based commemoration with the destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. The biblical Passover mentioned in the book of Exodus also <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691169545/the-book-of-exodus">occurred in individual homes</a>.</p>
<p>As such, the Bible <a href="https://doi.org/10.30965/21967954-00803002">provided ways</a> to adapt the celebration in light of changed circumstances. The Bible describes how the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816009000017">second Passover</a> – a year after the Israelites left Egypt – is celebrated in the wilderness, but seems to presuppose that its future celebration will be in the temple in Jerusalem. At that time, allowance would be made for those who had to travel long distances, by delaying its observance by 30 days. </p>
<p>This delay anticipated that geographical separation and time may not allow for normal Passover observance, a comfort directly derived from the Bible for those families who were not able to celebrate during the pandemic in person. </p>
<p>When families gather for Passover, however, many may choose to reflect on the hard times of the past years as part of the Seder. Indeed, the celebration of the Passover has <a href="https://doi.org/10.30965/21967954-00803002">in it other references related to Jewish history</a>, even if they were not always positive. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl pretends she is 'stealing' the bread, Afikomen, as part of Passover celebrations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391438/original/file-20210324-21-4civh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young girl pretends to ‘steal’ the Afikomen, as part of the celebrations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-girl-sneaks-up-to-steal-the-afikomen-containing-a-news-photo/516018308?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, part of the celebration of the <a href="https://jps.org/books/jps-commentary-on-the-haggadah/">Passover Haggadah</a> entails the breaking of unleavened bread, a piece of which is known as the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-afikoman">Afikomen</a>, which is then hidden. Children try to find it for a prize, called a “treasure from Egypt.” The term Afikomen is itself a Greek word, referring possibly to after-dinner revelry. It is a reminder of another historical moment in which Jewish cultures were heavily surrounded and influenced by the Greeks. </p>
<p>The relationship with the Greeks was a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110375558">complex one</a>. Some part of the <a href="https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664239048/from-the-maccabees-to-the-mishnah-third-edition.aspx">Greek influence</a> <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/jewish-life-and-thought-among-greeks-and-romans-9780567085252/">was celebrated</a> in early Jewish society. For example, the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-septuagint-9780567084644/">translation</a> of the Old Testament from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110431346">Hebrew into Greek</a>, starting in the third century B.C., was considered a divine act. </p>
<p>There were also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004330184_013">conflicts between Greek rulers and local Jewish populations</a>, which led to a war in the second century B.C., known as the <a href="http://store.carta-jerusalem.com/bible-history/732-understanding-the-maccabean-revolt-9789652208750.html">Maccabean Revolt</a>. Indeed, there were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/interpreting-scriptures-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam/056CCB36E7228D8151E2900986CBEA88">debates</a> in Judaism whether or not one could recite <a href="https://doi.org/10.30965/21967954-00601004">parts of the Bible in Greek</a>, in worship services. </p>
<p>Yet the incorporation of the word Afikomen in the Passover Haggadah displays a willingness to borrow a Greek term into an important Jewish celebration.</p>
<h2>Next year in Jerusalem</h2>
<p>Looking to the future is central to the celebration of the Passover Haggadah. Despite the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the meal concludes with the phrase, also said at the end of another observation known as Yom Kippur, “<a href="https://reformjudaism.org/blog/what-does-next-year-jerusalem-really-mean">Next year in Jerusalem</a>.” </p>
<p>In a meal that blends past and present and nods toward the future, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/next-year-in-jerusalem/">ending the Haggadah</a> with such a proclamation highlights the reality that despite freedom from Egypt, most Jewish communities over time celebrated the Passover Haggadah <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/03/next-year-may-we-be-together/">away from their ancestral home and in circumstances that were not ideal</a>. </p>
<p>This yearning for a world that is not yet healed and the toggling between past, present and future in the Passover celebration will perhaps hold special significance for many grandparents and their families after a long pandemic.</p>
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<p><em>The article has been updated slightly</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As vaccinated grandparents gather with their families this Passover, many might find solace in the history of the celebrations and how it offers hope for the future.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483022020-10-23T12:23:33Z2020-10-23T12:23:33ZCOVID-19 has shone a light on the millennia-old balance between public and private worship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364803/original/file-20201021-23-chzcse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=126%2C55%2C5154%2C3412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Religious services through Zoom: A pastor conducts online services from the basement of her home in Falls Church, Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/reverend-sarah-scherschligt-pastor-at-the-peace-lutheran-news-photo/1213405399?adppopup=true">Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As religious services went online to protect congregants from the coronavirus, a paradox emerged: Worshipers were connected via the internet to a potentially wide community, but it felt like a more private affair.</p>
<p>Yes, such Zoom services are viewable by audiences worldwide. But this diverted attention, if not attendance, away from many small, local congregations struggling to survive. While <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/arts/quaker-meeting-zoom.html">many have liked this new format</a>, there has also been <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/10/14/covid-synagogues-high-holy-days/">criticism</a>.</p>
<p>This is not the first time tensions between private worship and public expressions of religion have been felt. As a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/people/faculty/samuel-boyd">scholar</a> of the Bible, Judaism and Christianity, I am aware that even thousands of years ago <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/497586">private piety and public expressions</a> of religion existed in a delicate balance – one that is not a simple either/or proposition.</p>
<h2>Biblical roots</h2>
<p>Many cultures in antiquity incorporated elements of both private and public aspects of religion.</p>
<p>For example, in ancient <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-short-history-of-babylon-9781838601706/">Babylon</a>, approximately 3,800 years ago, private religious practices were conducted <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/248">in the household</a>. These religious practices were largely distinct from the publicly supported rituals that occurred in temples.</p>
<p>The Hebrew Bible also contains a mix of both public and private practices of religion. The texts have a number of examples of public expressions of faith alongside passages that have become foundational for personal prayers and expressions of individual religious devotion.</p>
<p>In the book of Leviticus, for example, the rituals of <a href="https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/the-story-of-sacrifice-9783161596360?no_cache=1">sacrifice</a> that took place in the temple are devoid of any personal prayers. </p>
<p>The high priest of ancient Israel makes a confession of sin for all of Israel at one point during one sacrifice, but this hardly counts as a personal prayer. Some rituals conducted at one of the temple altars, where a particular type of sacrifice called a burnt offering took place, were done in public view. </p>
<p>Yet moving expressions of personal piety also exist in the Psalms, a collection of poems in the Hebrew Bible. Many of these may have been <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ancient_Israel/A42yVk8kj8kC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=psalms+as+ancient+liturgy&pg=PA458&printsec=frontcover">liturgical recitations</a> sung or recited at certain occasions and times of the year, such as at feasts and festivals in the religious calendar.</p>
<p>When Babylonians in 586 B.C. destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the place where public sacrifices occurred, it sparked a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/religious-responses-to-political-crises-in-jewish-and-christian-tradition-9780567028129/">crisis</a> that changed the way people worshiped. </p>
<p>According to religion scholar <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/sniditch">Susan Niditch</a>, the destruction of the temple, as the center of institutional religion, resulted in much more personal, private expressions of faith. </p>
<p>This shift toward personal religion happened as the population in Jerusalem, the capital of a land believed to have been given to Israel by God, was exiled to Babylon. </p>
<p>With the loss of the temple and the land, the former inhabitants of Jerusalem had to find new ways to worship. It had to take place without the public support of the temple. Additionally, this community no longer had their traditional family networks in the homeland. </p>
<h2>Practices in antiquity</h2>
<p>The shift to a more personal expression of religion continued with books like <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300162349/job">Job</a> and <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/jps/9780827607422/">Ecclesiastes</a> in the Hebrew Bible, which were written after these tragedies. These books are about the manner in which suffering happens to good people and about the difficulties of divine justice in the world.</p>
<p>Both Job and Ecclesiastes portray the agony of the sufferer in a first-person sort of narrative, infused with individual expressions. More than in previous writings from the Bible, these books highlight how an individual character in the book – Job or Qohelet in Ecclesiastes – struggles to understand why bad things happen in the world.</p>
<p>At the same time, being a part of the Hebrew Bible, Job and Ecclesiastes have shaped how religious groups have understood the relationship between individual suffering in the context of a community. When Jewish and Christian groups read these books, the interpretation of these texts shaped the communities as well. </p>
<p>When read in religious groups, these books are not simple stories of individuals but rather become narratives of virtue that inform religious congregations of what righteous suffering and profound questions can look like.</p>
<p>This tension between public and private expressions of religion continued into the first centuries B.C. and A.D. In these centuries, the Latin term “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3644201.html">religio</a>,” from which came the English term “religion,” often referred to civic, public expressions of <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216783/religion">ritual</a> in service to traditional Roman gods and goddesses. </p>
<p>During this same time, Jesus of Nazareth encouraged his followers to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:5-6&version=NIV">pray in private</a> and not to make a public show of prayer. The latter might, according to Jesus, promote hypocrisy and lavish displays of religion meant to promote oneself instead of care for others. </p>
<h2>Prayers said in private rarely stay private</h2>
<p>However, personal reflection and concerns for communal identity were never far from each other. </p>
<p>The history of religions is replete with examples of individual, personal piety, offering alternative access to God from priestly, temple-based or church-based hierarchies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364806/original/file-20201021-19-1cppshw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A monk tends to a rose garden at Probota Monastery, Bukovina, Romania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/monk-tending-a-rose-garden-in-the-probota-monastery-news-photo/1131152567?adppopup=true">DEA / ALBERT CEOLAN / Contributor/De Agostini Collections via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An example is <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-christian-monasticism-9780199689736?cc=us&lang=en&">monasticism in Christianity</a>, which often cultivates private prayer practices and meditation.</p>
<p>In each instance, however, private piety is typically connected in some fashion to community, such as <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6588/the-lord-as-their-portion.aspx">orders</a> in monasticism. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1387834?seq=1">scholars of religion</a> as well as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Religion-in-Public-and-Private-Life-Routledge-Revivals/Cochran/p/book/9781138791084">political scientists</a> have questioned any absolute divide between notions of a private, personalized religion and public expressions of faith.</p>
<p>The idea of a retreat of religion from public view into privatized experiences is never fully accomplished, nor, as some would argue, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/secularization-and-its-discontents-9781441127853/">possible</a>. </p>
<h2>Private practice and public sphere</h2>
<p>This history of how communities adapt to tragedy could help explain the tension today between public and private practice of religion. </p>
<p>The effects on smaller congregations is evident when individuals prefer a pick-and-choose menu of services worldwide, such as <a href="https://hhd.centralsynagogue.org/live-streaming">Central Synagogue’s</a> livestream service in New York, instead of engagement in local communities. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Even beyond religious communities, Zoom has made the expression of religion increasingly a private affair at the same moment that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favor-trump-over-biden-but-support-has-slipped/">the election</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/11/us/politics/amy-coney-barrett-life-career-family.html">the Supreme Court</a> hearings have thrust religion in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/opinion/letters/religion-politics.html">public sphere</a>. </p>
<p>It is worth remembering that whether historically or in the current era, one’s personal piety is never too far from the public sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148302/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During the pandemic, the practice of faith has moved to being a more personal one for many. A scholar of the Judeo-Christian tradition explains how tragedy often resulted in private piety.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1421302020-07-17T12:19:23Z2020-07-17T12:19:23ZThe long history of how Jesus came to resemble a white European<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347971/original/file-20200716-23-118p5j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C2020%2C1694&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Painting depicting transfiguration of Jesus, a story in the New Testament when Jesus becomes radiant upon a mountain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Transfigurazione_%28Raffaello%29_September_2015-1a.jpg">Artist Raphael /Collections Hallwyl Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer en <a href="https://theconversation.com/como-jesus-llego-a-parecerse-a-un-europeo-blanco-143404">español</a></em></p>
<p>The portrayal of Jesus as a white, European man has come under renewed scrutiny during this period of introspection over the legacy of racism in society.</p>
<p>As protesters called for the removal of Confederate statues in the U.S., activist <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/white-jesus-statues-should-torn-down-black-lives-matters-leader-says-1512674">Shaun King</a> went further, suggesting that murals and artwork depicting “white Jesus” should “come down.”</p>
<p>His concerns about the depiction of Christ and how it is used to uphold notions of <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/66587">white supremacy</a> are not isolated. <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/06/24/how-jesus-became-white-and-why-its-time-to-cancel-that/">Prominent</a> <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/editorial-why-white-jesus-problem">scholars</a> and the archbishop of Canterbury <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/27/uk/justin-welby-jesus-scli-intl-gbr/index.html">have called to reconsider</a> Jesus’ portrayal as a white man. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://sc.academia.edu/AnnaSwartwoodHouse">European Renaissance art historian</a>, I study the evolving image of Jesus Christ from A.D. 1350 to 1600. Some of the <a href="https://www.uffizi.it/en/search?query%5Bmatching_text%5D=jesus+">best-known depictions of Christ</a>, from Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” to Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel, were produced during this period.</p>
<p>But the all-time most-reproduced image of Jesus comes from another period. It is <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300063424/icons-american-protestantism">Warner Sallman’s light-eyed, light-haired “Head of Christ” from 1940</a>. Sallman, a former commercial artist who created art for advertising campaigns, successfully marketed this picture worldwide.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346421/original/file-20200708-3995-5ulgxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sallman’s ‘Head of Christ’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through Sallman’s partnerships with two Christian publishing companies, one Protestant and one Catholic, the Head of Christ came to be included on everything from prayer cards to stained glass, faux oil paintings, calendars, hymnals and night lights.</p>
<p>Sallman’s painting culminates a long tradition of white Europeans creating and disseminating pictures of Christ made in their own image.</p>
<h2>In search of the holy face</h2>
<p>The historical Jesus likely had the brown eyes and skin of other <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35120965">first-century Jews from Galilee</a>, a region in biblical Israel. But no one knows exactly what Jesus looked like. There are no known images of Jesus from his lifetime, and while the Old Testament Kings Saul and David are explicitly called <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/9-2.htm">tall</a> and <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/16-12.htm">handsome</a> in the Bible, there is little indication of Jesus’ appearance in the Old or New Testaments.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347766/original/file-20200715-23-1x1wxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Good Shepherd.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Good_Shepherd_Catacomb_of_Priscilla.jpg">Joseph Wilpert</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even these texts are contradictory: The Old Testament prophet Isaiah reads that the coming savior “<a href="https://biblehub.com/isaiah/53-2.htm">had no beauty or majesty</a>,” while the Book of Psalms claims he was “<a href="https://biblehub.com/psalms/45-2.htm">fairer than the children of men</a>,” the word “fair” referring to physical beauty.</p>
<p>The earliest images of Jesus Christ emerged in the first through third centuries A.D., amidst concerns about idolatry. They were less about capturing the actual appearance of Christ than about clarifying his role as a ruler or as a savior. </p>
<p>To clearly indicate these roles, early Christian artists often relied on syncretism, meaning they combined visual formats from other cultures.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Probably the most popular syncretic image is Christ as <a href="https://biblehub.com/john/10-11.htm">the Good Shepherd</a>, a beardless, youthful figure based on pagan representations of Orpheus, Hermes and Apollo. </p>
<p>In other common depictions, Christ wears the toga or other attributes of the emperor. The theologian <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/info/23704/theology_faculty/6211/richard_viladesau">Richard Viladesau</a> argues that the mature bearded Christ, with long hair in the “Syrian” style, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/ebr.jesus">combines characteristics</a> of the Greek god Zeus and the Old Testament figure Samson, among others.</p>
<h2>Christ as self-portraitist</h2>
<p>The first portraits of Christ, in the sense of authoritative likenesses, were believed to be self-portraits: the miraculous “image not made by human hands,” or acheiropoietos. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347767/original/file-20200715-15-1qnwbii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Acheiropoietos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_School#/media/File:Christos_Acheiropoietos.jpg">Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This belief originated in the seventh century A.D., based on a legend that Christ healed King Abgar of Edessa in modern-day Urfa, Turkey, through a miraculous image of his face, now known as the Mandylion. </p>
<p>A similar legend adopted by Western Christianity between the 11th and 14th centuries recounts how, before his death by crucifixion, Christ left an impression of his face on the veil of Saint Veronica, an image known as the volto santo, or “Holy Face.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347769/original/file-20200715-25-tvk1m9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christ crowned with thorns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435580">Artist Antonello da Messina. The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931, Metropolitan Museum, New York</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These two images, along with other similar relics, have formed the basis of iconic traditions about the “true image” of Christ. </p>
<p>From the perspective of art history, these artifacts reinforced an already standardized image of a bearded Christ with shoulder-length, dark hair. </p>
<p>In the Renaissance, European artists began to combine the icon and the portrait, making Christ in their own likeness. This happened for a variety of reasons, from identifying with the human suffering of Christ to commenting on one’s own creative power.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347979/original/file-20200716-35-hv9mb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Albrecht Dürer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61547383">Albrecht Dürer/Alte Pinakothek Collections</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 15th-century Sicilian painter Antonello da Messina, for example, painted small pictures of the suffering Christ formatted exactly like his <a href="https://www.palazzomadamatorino.it/it/tag-opere/antonello-da-messina">portraits of regular people</a>, with the subject positioned between a fictive parapet and a plain black background and signed “Antonello da Messina painted me.”</p>
<p>The 16th-century German artist Albrecht Dürer blurred the line between the holy face and his own image in a famous self-portrait of 1500. In this, he posed frontally like an icon, with his beard and luxuriant shoulder-length hair recalling Christ’s. The “AD” monogram could stand equally for “Albrecht Dürer” or “Anno Domini” – “in the year of our Lord.” </p>
<h2>In whose image?</h2>
<p>This phenomenon was not restricted to Europe: There are 16th- and 17th-century pictures of Jesus with, for example, <a href="https://art.thewalters.org/detail/30807/triptych-with-mary-and-her-son-archangels-scenes-from-life-of-christ-and-saints">Ethiopian</a> and <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.312">Indian</a> features.</p>
<p>In Europe, however, the image of a light-skinned European Christ began to influence other parts of the world through European trade and colonization. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347771/original/file-20200715-17-7c88iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Adoration of the Magi.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.getty.edu/museum/images/web/enlarge/00090001.jpg">Artist Andrea Mantegna. The J. Paul Getty Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Italian painter Andrea Mantegna’s “Adoration of the Magi” from A.D. 1505 features three distinct magi, who, according to one <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/535881/the-story-of-the-black-king-among-the-magi/">contemporary tradition</a>, came from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They present expensive objects of porcelain, agate and brass that would have been prized imports from China and the Persian and Ottoman empires. </p>
<p>But Jesus’ light skin and blues eyes suggest that he is not Middle Eastern but European-born. And the faux-Hebrew script embroidered on Mary’s cuffs and hemline belie a complicated relationship to the Judaism of the Holy Family. </p>
<p>In Mantegna’s Italy, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674240933">anti-Semitic myths</a> were already prevalent among the majority Christian population, with Jewish people often segregated to their own quarters of major cities.</p>
<p>Artists tried to distance Jesus and his parents from their Jewishness. Even seemingly small attributes like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/650997">pierced ears</a> – earrings were associated with Jewish women, their removal with a conversion to Christianity – could represent a transition toward the Christianity represented by Jesus. </p>
<p>Much later, anti-Semitic forces in Europe including the Nazis would attempt to divorce Jesus totally from his Judaism in favor of an <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691148052/the-aryan-jesus">Aryan stereotype</a>. </p>
<h2>White Jesus abroad</h2>
<p>As Europeans colonized increasingly farther-flung lands, they brought a European Jesus with them. Jesuit missionaries established painting schools that taught new converts Christian art in a European mode.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://explore-art.pem.org/object/asian-export-art/AE85752/detail">small altarpiece made in the school of Giovanni Niccolò</a>, the Italian Jesuit who founded the “Seminary of Painters” in Kumamoto, Japan, around 1590, combines a traditional Japanese gilt and mother-of-pearl shrine with a painting of a distinctly white, European Madonna and Child.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=681&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347772/original/file-20200715-27-vvo3q7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicolas Correa’s ‘The Mystic Betrothal of Saint Rose of Lima.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicol%C3%A1s_Correa_-_The_Mystic_Betrothal_of_Saint_Rose_of_Lima_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Museo Nacional de Arte</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In colonial Latin America – called “New Spain” by European colonists – images of a white Jesus reinforced a <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300109719/casta-painting">caste system</a> where white, Christian Europeans occupied the top tier, while those with darker skin from perceived intermixing with native populations ranked considerably lower. </p>
<p>Artist Nicolas Correa’s 1695 painting of Saint Rose of Lima, the first Catholic saint born in “New Spain,” shows her metaphorical marriage to a blond, light-skinned Christ. </p>
<h2>Legacies of likeness</h2>
<p>Scholar <a href="https://history.sdsu.edu/people/blum">Edward J. Blum</a> and <a href="http://www.paulharvey.com/">Paul Harvey</a> argue that in the centuries after European colonization of the Americas, the image of a white Christ associated him with the logic of empire and could be used to <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469618845/the-color-of-christ/">justify the oppression of Native and African Americans</a>.</p>
<p>In a multiracial but unequal America, there was a disproportionate representation of a white Jesus in the media. It wasn’t only Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ that was depicted widely; a large proportion of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/actors-who-played-jesus-christ/">actors who have played Jesus on television and film</a> have been white with blue eyes. </p>
<p>Pictures of Jesus historically have served many purposes, from symbolically presenting his power to depicting his actual likeness. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/arts/design/jesus-christ-image-easter.html">representation matters</a>, and viewers need to understand the complicated history of the images of Christ they consume.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Swartwood House does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent protests on racial justice have also questioned the portrayal of Jesus as a white man. An art historian explains how this image appeared and came to be marketed worldwide.Anna Swartwood House, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1358882020-04-07T17:29:17Z2020-04-07T17:29:17ZA virtual Passover may be the first for many, but Judaism has a long history of ritual innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326157/original/file-20200407-151930-1l1iyyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C71%2C3928%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As workers make matzo for Passover, many families will not be able to get together this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-making-matzah-for-passover-at-matzot-aviv-factory-news-photo/1217341643?adppopup=true">Guy Prives/Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, it is affecting how families celebrate important religious events such as <a href="https://kjzz.org/content/1501181/how-coronavirus-affecting-ramadan-passover-and-easter-valley">Easter, Passover and Ramadan</a>, which would normally involve the gathering of families.</p>
<p>For example, in Judaism, Passover, which commemorates the <a href="http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/3747/1/Assmann_Exodus_and_Memory_2015.pdf">exodus</a> of the Israelites from Egypt, involves younger and older generations dramatizing the events of slavery in Egypt and the recitation of a liturgy called the “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691144986/the-passover-haggadah">Passover Haggadah</a>.”</p>
<p>The recitation of certain <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-religious-holidays-april_n_5e85f2a4c5b60bbd73507479?ri18n=true&guccounter=1">communal prayers</a> at Passover, like many other ritual celebrations in some orthodox Jewish communities, involves a <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10865-minyan">minyan</a>, or a quorum of 10, traditionally male, participants. Highly interactive Passover meals, or Seders, include games for children, such as finding the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-where-does-the-afikoman-come-from-1.5342866">afikomen</a>, part of an unleavened wafer that is hidden, the discovery of which is often rewarded with a prize.</p>
<p>Since many families cannot gather in person, leaders of congregations have said that being in the same “<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/orthodox-tel-aviv-synagogue-begins-virtual-online-prayer-services-621427">place</a>” according to the traditional understanding can accommodate virtual presence. Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through videoconferencing tools such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alywalansky/2020/04/02/this-night-is-different-from-other-nights-planning-a-virtual-passover-seder/#478b88fa76c2">Zoom</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/samuel-boyd">historian of the Bible</a>, I know <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/post-holocaustamericanjudaismcollections/embodied-judaism/freedom-seder">Passover</a> has long been a platform for <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/04/04/397323302/in-freedom-seder-jews-and-african-americans-built-a-tradition-together">ritual innovation</a>. A particularly important example of a similar sort of ritual innovation occurred when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, twice. </p>
<p>Following the destruction, the way that Jewish communities worshiped God changed forever.</p>
<h2>Temple worship</h2>
<p>The temple in Jerusalem occupies an important place in both <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300197884/temple-early-christianity">Jewish and Christian</a> thought. David, the king of Israel who ruled from around 1010 to 970 B.C., is said to have first envisioned the temple. It was, however, built by his son <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/David-and-Solomon/Israel-Finkelstein/9780743243636">Solomon</a>. </p>
<p>The temple played a central role in ancient Israelite worship. According to the Bible, the temple in Jerusalem was where God <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300209228/where-gods-are">lived</a>. The belief was that as long as God remained in Jerusalem, the city would be indestructible. </p>
<p>In 701 B.C., a king named Sennacherib tried to invade Jerusalem but was unsuccessful. The military campaign devastated the surrounding villages, but Jerusalem survived. According to some biblical texts, God had chosen the temple as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264697">special place to dwell</a>.</p>
<p>Sacrifices were performed in the temple to ensure that God stayed forever in Jerusalem. The belief was that the sacrifices provided <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/blood-ritual-hebrew-bible">food for God</a>. </p>
<p>The blood from the sacrifices was also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44088340">intended as a purge</a>. It was believed that sinful actions of Israelites could travel through the air, generating a stain, called a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3268524">miasma</a>.” </p>
<p>This stain was believed to stick to various parts of the temple. According to the Book of Leviticus, in the Old Testament, the more important the person in Israelite society committing the sin, the closer the stain would land to the place where God was believed to have lived, called the “Holy of Holies.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-101-6.html">blood of sacrifices</a> was applied to these places, making God’s dwelling clean and tidy.</p>
<p>As such, these sacrifices were designed to keep God happy and they were essential to maintaining order in the divine dwelling.</p>
<h2>Religious reordering</h2>
<p>Except that the biblical texts claim that God did not stay in the temple forever. According to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, God became unhappy with the state of affairs in Jerusalem and <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=060709P&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=SBL">abandoned</a> the temple.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-041-5.html">divine abandonment</a> Jerusalem was no longer indestructible. In <a href="https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=061718P">586 B.C.</a>, Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.</p>
<p>The temple was rebuilt around 515 B.C. But this “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/jps/9780827612655/">Second Temple</a>” too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in A.D. 70. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322368/original/file-20200323-112720-10qnztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Model of Jerusalem in the late Second Temple period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/9508280@N07/5540487348/">Dan Lundberg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This destruction left Jewish leaders with profound questions. Without a temple, they asked, how could people access God and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520295926/blood-for-thought">offer sacrifices</a>? </p>
<p>Another vital question before them was: How were these Jewish communities to relate to God, particularly in view of the commands of sacrifice in the Bible, when the temple was gone? </p>
<h2>Ritual innovation</h2>
<p>Religious texts were believed to hold answers for <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674791510">why</a> these disasters occurred. </p>
<p>According to the scholar <a href="https://www.jameskugel.com/">James Kugel</a>, Jewish prophets and sages explained that these events were “God’s punishment” for the failure to “obey the divine laws.” </p>
<p>As a result, those who survived were “resolved to learn the lesson of history” by studying ancient texts and performing the laws as God intended. In this way, it was believed, they would find “favor with God” and “head off another disaster,” according to Kugel.</p>
<p>Other scholars, such as <a href="https://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/balberg.html">Mira Balberg</a> and <a href="https://nelc.uchicago.edu/simeon-chavel">Simeon Chavel</a>, have argued that the same biblical texts were also thought to contain the key for constructing <a href="https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.13109/jaju.2017.8.3.292">new religious ideas</a>. In fact, these texts gave license for ritual innovation in light of changing historical circumstances. </p>
<p>Such innovations were often, though not always, grounded in sacred texts and traditions. That way they had a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deuteronomy-and-the-hermeneutics-of-legal-innovation-9780195112801?cc=us&lang=en&">continuity with the past</a>. </p>
<h2>Adapting to change</h2>
<p>It was through this process that prayer in the Jewish tradition came to be seen as a form of sacrifice. </p>
<p>Both the act of sacrifice and prayer <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/21948">connected</a> the divine and human realms. Some passages in the Bible made the connection explicit.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664239048/from-the-maccabees-to-the-mishnah-third-edition.aspx">Psalm 141:2</a>, which says, “Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice,” drew similarities between prayer and sacrifice. So did another book in the Bible – <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/627?lang=en">Hosea 14:3</a>, which says, “Instead of bulls we will pay the offering of our lips.” </p>
<p>The verses even put prayer and sacrifice in parallel poetic lines as a way to almost equate the actions. </p>
<p>In fact, the prayer in Judaism known as the “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300106282/ancient-synagogue">Amidah</a>” was conceived as a substitute for sacrifice very shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Reciting the Amidah.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The destruction of the temple created unimaginable crises in the religious sensibilities of ancient Jews, but also became a platform to reimagine how religious ritual worked. </p>
<p>The ability for modern religious communities to adapt and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-gone-wrong-9780199790920?cc=us&lang=en&">innovate</a> rituals in light of circumstances, then, has deep and very <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-repentance-became-biblical-9780190212247?cc=us&lang=en&">productive roots</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><em>This is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-communities-are-offering-baptism-by-zoom-such-innovation-has-deep-historical-roots-134183">updated version</a> of a piece first published on March 24, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through Zoom this year. A historian of the Bible explains how ancient Israelites changed the ways of their worship.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1299692020-02-13T14:02:47Z2020-02-13T14:02:47ZThe power of a song in a strange land<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314568/original/file-20200210-109912-p5sg2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A studio group portrait of the Fisk University Jubilee singers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print">James Wallace Black/American Missionary Association</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the moment of capture, through the treacherous middle passage, after the final sale and throughout life in North America, the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html">experience of enslaved Africans</a> who first arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, some 400 years ago, was characterized by loss, terror and abuse. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm">Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807</a> made it illegal to buy and sell people in British colonies, but in the independent United States slavery remained a prominent – <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=40">and legal</a> – practice until December 1865. From this tragic backdrop one of the most poignant American musical genres, the Negro spiritual, was birthed. </p>
<p>Sometimes called <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/spirituals">slave songs, jubilees and sorrow songs</a>, spirituals were created out of, and spoke directly to, the black experience in America prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, that declared all slaves free. </p>
<h2>West African roots</h2>
<p>Spirituals have been a part of my life from childhood. In small churches in Virginia and North Carolina, we sang the songs of our ancestors, drawing strength and hope. I went on to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Art_Songs_and_Spirituals_by_Contemporary.html?id=ydzZuQAACAAJ">study</a>, perform and teach the spiritual for over 40 years to people across the U.S. and in various parts of the world. </p>
<p>Despite attempts, white slave-owners could not strip Africans of their culture. Even with a new language, English, and without familiar instruments, the enslaved people turned the peculiarities of African musical expressions into the African American sound.</p>
<p>Rhythms were complex and marked by syncopation, an accent on the weak beat. Call-and-response, a technique rooted in sub-Saharan West African culture, was <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ad802e59cc6835890d7c7c/t/59af147e197aea0fbfcc2e1f/1504646271536/THE+HYMN+Review.pdf">frequently employed</a> in spirituals. Call-and-response is very much like a conversation – the leader makes a statement or asks a question and others answer or expound. </p>
<p>An example of this is the spiritual, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/spirituals">Certainly Lord</a>. The leader excitedly queries, “Have you got good religion?” and others jubilantly respond, “Certainly, Lord.” Using repetition and improvisation, the conversation continues to build until everyone exclaims, “certainly, certainly, certainly, Lord!”</p>
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<p>In Africa, drums were used to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode86/">communicate</a> from village to village because they could be used to mimic the inflection of voices. </p>
<p>As early as 1739 in the British colonies, drums were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode86/">prohibited by law</a> and characterized as weapons in an attempt to prevent slaves from building community and inciting rebellion. </p>
<p>As a result, enslaved people “played” drum patterns on the body. Hands clapped, feet stomped, bodies swayed and mouths provided sophisticated rhythmic patterns. This can be observed in Hambone, an example of improvised body music. </p>
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<h2>Oral tradition</h2>
<p>Some spirituals were derived from African melodies. Others were “new,” <a href="http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=6&smtID=6">freely composed songs</a> with a melodic phrase borrowed from here and a rhythmic pattern from there – all combined to create an highly improvised form. </p>
<p>The spiritual was deeply rooted in the oral tradition and often created spontaneously, one person starting a tune and another joining until a new song was added to the community repertoire. The sophisticated result was beautifully <a href="http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=6&smtID=6">described</a> in 1862 by Philadelphia musicologist and piano teacher <a href="http://www.njwomenshistory.org/discover/biographies/lucy-mckim-garrison/">Lucy McKim Garrison</a>. </p>
<p>“It is difficult to express the entire character of these negro ballads by mere musical notes and signs,” she said. “The odd turns made in the throat; the curious rhythmic effect produced by single voices chiming in at different irregular intervals, seem almost as impossible to place on score.” </p>
<p>Textually, the spiritual <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2293924?seq=1">drew from the Hebrew-Christian Bible</a>, particularly the Old Testament, with its stories of deliverance and liberation. Songs like “Go Down Moses” direct the awaited deliverer to “go down” to Southern plantations and “tell ole Pharaoh” – the masters – to “let my people go.” </p>
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<h2>Songs of survival</h2>
<p>For the slaves, the spiritual proved to be an ingenious tool used to counter senseless brutality and the denial of personhood. In order to survive emotionally, resilience was critical. In the spirituals, slaves sang out their struggle, weariness, loneliness, sorrow, hope and determination for a new and better life. </p>
<p>Yet these are not songs of anger. They are <a href="https://www.ecu.edu/african/sersas/Papers/WrightJ.pdf">songs of survival</a> that voice an unwavering belief in their own humanity and attest to an abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of good over systemic evil. </p>
<p>Interspersed within these seemingly hopeless texts are phrases that reflect the heart’s hope: the words “<a href="https://youtu.be/KiJx1Hbn_KM">true believer</a>” amid the acknowledgment that “sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” for example; and “glory, hallelujah” interjected after the text, “<a href="https://youtu.be/O977l4bkv-U">nobody knows the trouble I see</a>.” </p>
<p>Songs declaring, “<a href="https://youtu.be/CUNrEtS0KeY">I’ve got a crown up in a dat kingdom. Ain’t a dat good news</a>” proclaimed the certainty of a future hope totally unlike the day-to-day reality of enslavement. </p>
<p>People whose every movement was dictated audaciously declared, “I’ve got shoes. You’ve got shoes. All God’s children got shoes. When I get to heaven gonna put on my shoes, gonna walk all over God’s heaven.” In the same song they denounced the hypocrisy of the slaveholders’ religion: “Everybody talkin’ ‘bout heaven ain’t going there.” </p>
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<p>Spirituals weren’t simply religious music. In his seminal work, “Narrative Of The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave,” published in 1845, the abolitionist <a href="https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf">explains</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The spirituals were <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/spirituals">also acts of rebellion</a>. They were used to <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1202&context=reprints">organize clandestine meetings</a>, and announce activities of the Underground Railroad. For example, songs like “<a href="https://youtu.be/OEPpI0Nnd3c">Great Camp Meeting</a>,” were used to announce when secret gatherings were being planned.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>The spiritual served as a mediator between the dissonance of oppression and the belief that there was “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498536493/The-Motif-of-Hope-in-African-American-Preaching-during-Slavery-and-the-Post-Civil-War-Era-There's-a-Bright-Side-Somewhere">a bright side somewhere</a>.” </p>
<p>Four hundred years after the birth of slavery, as the world still struggles with racial division, injustice and a sense of hopelessness, spirituals can teach how to build hope in the face of despair and challenge the status quo.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rev. Dr. Donna M. Cox has received funding from the University of Dayton Research Council and The Ohio Humanities Council. She is affiliated with Doxology Ministries International, Inc, a 501c3 charitable organization. </span></em></p>Spirituals were created out of the experience of enslaved people in the US. They weren’t songs of anger – but of an abiding belief in the victory of good over evil.Donna M. Cox, Professor of Music, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1204772019-07-17T11:22:57Z2019-07-17T11:22:57ZThe Bible says to welcome refugees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284397/original/file-20190716-173347-9ka3gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new Trump ruling will prohibit virtually all Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/b607d7218b0e40f599c7a36b9fdc85d2/18/0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration will <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-central-americans-asylum-protections-20190715-story.html">stop accepting asylum applications</a> from migrants who could have claimed asylum in a different country before entering the U.S., it announced on July 15.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-15246.pdf">interim immigration rule</a> upends a <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2018/03/american-courts-and-the-u-n-high-commissioner-for-refugees-a-need-for-harmony-in-the-face-of-a-refugee-crisis/">60-year-old policy</a> that protects refugees from war, political persecution and targeted violence. Central Americans – <a href="https://theconversation.com/todays-us-mexico-border-crisis-in-6-charts-98922">hundreds of thousands</a> of whom cross Mexico each year – will now be barred from applying for asylum when they reach the U.S. </p>
<p>Only refugees who applied for and were denied asylum in a “safe third country” – <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-will-pay-the-price-of-mexicos-tariff-deal-with-trump-118269">in practice, Mexico</a> – may then apply to the U.S. for protection. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">Roman Catholic</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XuFPwjsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar</a>, I look to the Bible for guidance in evaluating the Trump administration’s immigration policies, from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-travel-ban-targeting-muslims-will-not-make-america-safer-97519">Muslim ban</a> and the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-42288681/trump-s-border-wall-climbing-tests-begin-on-prototypes">border wall</a> to the new asylum rule. </p>
<p>At issue in all these policies, it seems to me, are deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger.</p>
<p>So, what does the Bible actually say?</p>
<h2>We will all be strangers, sometime</h2>
<p>The Bible affirms – strongly and clearly – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.</p>
<p>In “Love the Stranger,” an article written for the annual meeting of the <a href="http://www.collegetheology.org">College Theological Society</a>, biblical scholar <a href="http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/Alice-L-Laffey">Alice Laffey</a> states that in the Hebrew Bible, the words “gûr” and “gēr” are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VDYmQYg4ngAC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=alice+laffey+stranger&source=bl&ots=mguoUeVNuH&sig=TjOLg2kiEWcJlJ3mWfLt_8ciOxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit2MzSoOPRAhUr6YMKHSHJAFAQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=alice%20laffey%20stranger&f=false">most often cited</a> as referring to the “stranger,” though they are also translated as “newcomer” and “alien” or “resident alien,” respectively. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Old Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtwiggs/58822134/in/photolist-6ctLJ-pFE9Me-r4nLvt-atgwUB-5ewgqF-oxiSFi-bmPKHz-EN4cJ-7v4iXA-8r5H1A-63vqTn-9344W4-937bqd-4yCwfq-9344SZ-sZqcC-8L9V7S-7phADp-b1Py8t-7vd23k-6KHzTP-6KHzJg-9EVyR2-9EYv99-bi5bz-4sJXhb-amT1rc-4XKsdn-6KMH6h-q8DYEt-9EYw4S-bzDUgt-8yhKSf-e7eNdT-9gBc4C-5uhyHz-63CV4c-5uhrrr-dkVGrD-bmPGrX-7QBfzv-dJu49c-6QJdyp-fj8rD-dSz74c-9hLP5g-pMPsPi-6fSXcE-8XgMPk-euSjNX">Glenn Twiggs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the word “gēr” appears almost 50 times. The fifth book, Deuteronomy, specifically sets out requirements for treating “the stranger” not just with courtesy but also with active support. </p>
<p>For example, Deuteronomy states that a portion of produce should be saved by farmers every third year and given to strangers, widows and orphans. In the <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/jeremiah/7.htm">“temple sermon”</a> attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jewish people are also exhorted to “not oppress the sojourner.” </p>
<p>Within the Hebrew Bible the requirements of hospitality are sometimes presented in shocking ways, as in the story from the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+19">book of Judges</a> where a host offers his own daughter to rapists in order to protect his guest. </p>
<p>Of course, the Israelites themselves were <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.713849">“strangers”</a> during their <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Exile">enslavement in Egypt and captivity in Babylon</a>. </p>
<p>The Hebrew Bible recognizes that every one of us will be a stranger at some point in our lives.</p>
<h2>The stranger is Jesus in disguise</h2>
<p>In the New Testament, which Christians read together with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/matthew/25.htm">Matthew 25: 31-40</a>. </p>
<p>This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will go to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-heaven-97670">paradise</a> and unrepentant sinners will be sent to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hell-94560">eternal fire</a>. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” </p>
<p>The righteous then ask, “When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?” </p>
<p>Christ replies, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stranger is Jesus in disguise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waitingfortheword/7019990467/in/photolist-bGkhAp-coWthJ-hoeBEs-6qCd3Z-hoem9N-hoeaKF-ovgY1U-eaNajK-hofHyX-p6bJ42-hoeHVw-cKNY7f-hofHAF-nxD3G9-DELRVD-oL7Zd8-hoeaTX-hoeaAT-mw96tH-pHpEJ2-hoemj7-hoeaQa-hofspP-8UB7Si-pquo9x-oTkDhz-qRw9a6-hoem2o-6PFDZW-mw6XdZ-hoem4s-qLKUHH-CicpQM-cKNW6W-hoesuG-4EG3sN-e4Jgoj-aLDbjK-eaNqEp-bNQbXR-acZFS7-9x81NN-aLBGjZ-ejm1tb-9x81T1-hoeaxX-nfAUzo-rctq7L-aH34hZ-p8NWT5">Waiting For The Word</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Matthew 25 makes clear, Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. In fact, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are actually synonymous. The Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in the usual sense – but also to people whom you do not know. </p>
<p>Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus – one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries – often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3&version=ESV">it is made clear</a> that in Christ,</p>
<p>“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.”</p>
<p>From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings. </p>
<p>All people have equal dignity.</p>
<h2>Bible is unambiguous in its message</h2>
<p>Of course, in Christianity strong statements about treating the stranger with love and respect have coexisted with actions indicating the opposite. Pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been supported by Christians who also would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible is clear in its message.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/2139794716/in/photolist-4g61qm-dLHs1G-b1cX2F-eCjg7S-6eW1XJ-JfVrhh-4DyhM-6zUbUc-dEQpbD-an8bq1-7z5qxy-bmQnV3-eCG1kv-dJYx9p-iMZkGa-DY2VD-gaUZ2v-dQ1cWv-8cGEws-5NxLHi-6zTxwt-7GYHRC-bszcyi-bszdFz-gaS4MR-8MWgjt-mEvsM4-bjVGzE-bszd6Z-aBz4b6-oxeYLd-iXdHrn-7cbVj9-gaQ3E4-pU8f5T-atXxSw-fDViWK-bvdYoP-c8qMef-4hmqCg-oeW4hC-DY2VJ-7zsrnV-ftbKiA-gaQ9CL-vZ1aj-gaQf61-6bWHMB-6c1Tth-8RevyL">Andrew Malone</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When it comes to denying asylum or building a wall on America’s border with Mexico, <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/donald-trump-election-2016-catholic-vote/">some Christians argue</a> that doing so does not violate biblical values of hospitality since the issue is one of legality. And a good number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/18/evangelical-approval-of-trump-remains-high-but-other-religious-groups-are-less-supportive/">Christians support Donald Trump’s presidency</a>.</p>
<p>But other Christians take an opposing position, calling for cities and educational institutions – in addition to churches – to be set apart as “<a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/11/16/nationwide-effort-to-make-college-campuses-safe-zones-for-undocumented-students/">safe zones</a>” for undocumented immigrants. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/24/republicans-turn-more-negative-toward-refugees-as-number-admitted-to-u-s-plummets/">the divide</a> among Christians around the treatment of undocumented immigrants and refugees shows, applying biblical principles to matters of policy is difficult.</p>
<p>However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles that demand we welcome the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bible-says-about-welcoming-refugees-72050">story</a> originally published Jan. 30, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz is a political independent.</span></em></p>Scripture strongly and unequivocally affirms the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality, says a Christian scholar who turns to the Bible for guidance on Trump’s immigration policy.Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1057702018-10-30T10:46:01Z2018-10-30T10:46:01ZThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible’s past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242793/original/file-20181029-76405-l67pp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A conservator works with a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 145 at The Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Dead-Seas-Scrolls/0f2dad3960dc468883fa8ef8722950b7/33/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., in 2018 <a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/press/press-releases/museum-of-the-bible-releases-research-findings-on-fragments-in-its-dead-sea-scrolls-collection">removed five Dead Sea Scrolls</a> from exhibits after tests confirmed these fragments were <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685179-12341428">not from ancient biblical scrolls</a> but forgeries.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the Green family, owners of the craft-supply chain Hobby Lobby, has <a href="https://lyingpen.com/2018/03/27/the-post-2002-dss-like-fragments-a-price-list/">paid millions of dollars</a> for fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be the crown jewels in the museum’s exhibition showcasing the history and heritage of the Bible. </p>
<p>Why would the Green family spend so much on small scraps of parchment? </p>
<h2>Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery</h2>
<p>From the first accidental discovery, the <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">story of the Dead Sea Scrolls</a> is a dramatic one.</p>
<p>In 1947, Bedouin men herding goats in the hills to the west of the Dead Sea entered a cave near Wadi Qumran in the West Bank and stumbled on clay jars filled with leather scrolls. Ten more caves were discovered over the next decade that contained tens of thousands of fragments belonging to over 900 scrolls. Most of the finds were made by the Bedouin. </p>
<p>Some of these scrolls were later acquired by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities through complicated transactions and a few by the state of Israel. The bulk of the scrolls came under the control of the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/modules_eng.aspx?menu=10">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> in 1967. </p>
<p>Included among the scrolls are the oldest copies of books in the Hebrew Bible and many other ancient Jewish writings: prayers, commentaries, religious laws, magical and mystical texts. They have shed much new light on the origins of the Bible, Judaism and even Christianity. </p>
<h2>The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls</h2>
<p>Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated to the 10th century A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 225 <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">copies of biblical books</a> that date up to 1,200 years earlier. </p>
<p>These range from small fragments to a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther and Nehemiah. They show that the books of the Jewish Bible were known and treated as sacred writings before the time of Jesus, with essentially the same content. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there was no “Bible” as such but a loose assortment of writings sacred to various Jews including numerous books not in the modern Jewish Bible. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two men stand on the foundations of the ancient Khirbet Qumran ruins, which lie on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan, in 1957. The ruins are above the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Jordan-QUMR-/fd0373fddce6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/138/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls show that in the first century B.C. there were <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4611/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-the-origins-of-the-bible.aspx">different versions</a> of books that became part of the Hebrew canon, especially Exodus, Samuel, Jeremiah, Psalms and Daniel.</p>
<p>This evidence has helped scholars understand how the Bible came to be, but it neither proves nor disproves its religious message.</p>
<h2>Judaism and Christianity</h2>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls are unique in representing a sort of library of a particular Jewish group that lived at Qumran in the first century B.C. to about 68 A.D. They probably belonged to the Essenes, a strict Jewish movement described by several writers from the first century A.D. </p>
<p>The scrolls provide a rich trove of <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/the-complete-world-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-softcover">Jewish religious texts</a> previously unknown. Some of these were written by Essenes and give insights into their views, as well as their conflict with other Jews including the Pharisees. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls contain nothing about Jesus or the early Christians, but indirectly they help to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and why his message drew followers and opponents. Both the Essenes and the early Christians believed they were living at the time foretold by prophets when God would establish a kingdom of peace and that their teacher revealed the true meaning of Scripture. </p>
<h2>Fame and forgeries</h2>
<p>The fame of the Dead Sea Scrolls is what has encouraged both forgeries and the shadow market in antiquities. They are often called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century because of their importance to understanding the Bible and the Jewish world at the time of Jesus. </p>
<p>Religious artifacts especially attract forgeries, because people want a physical connection to their faith. The so-called <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469614571/resurrecting-the-brother-of-jesus/">James Ossuary</a>, a limestone box, that was claimed to be the burial box of the brother of Jesus, attracted much attention in 2002. A few years later, it was found that it was indeed an authentic burial box for a person named James from the first century A.D., but by adding “brother of Jesus” the forger made it seem priceless.</p>
<p>Scholars eager to publish and discuss new texts are <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-dead-sea-scroll-fakes-abound-and-scholars-admit-they-share-the-blame-1.6600900?=&ts=_1540825933778">partly responsible</a> for this shady market. </p>
<p>The confirmation of forged scrolls at the Museum of Bible only confirmed that artifacts should be viewed with highest suspicion unless the source is fully known. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/los-manuscritos-del-mar-muerto-son-un-vinculo-inestimable-con-el-pasado-de-la-biblia-106029"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Falk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The real scrolls are considered priceless. Here’s why.Daniel Falk, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020052018-08-30T13:30:18Z2018-08-30T13:30:18ZWhat was the first Bible like?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233897/original/file-20180828-86123-1cv3kot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Awaiting revelation. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/priest-old-bible-on-black-background-1031695462?src=RZ1zn94c0FWW52e5Jj2jNQ-1-23">Africa Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years after Jesus <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135894.The_Historical_Figure_of_Jesus">was crucified</a> at Calvary, the story of his life, death and resurrection was not immediately written down. The experiences of disciples like Matthew and John would have been told and retold at many dinner tables and firesides, perhaps for decades, before anyone <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">recorded</a> them for posterity. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians+1.11-20&version=NIV">St Paul</a>, whose writings are equally central to the New Testament, was not even present among the early believers until a few years after Jesus’ execution.</p>
<p>But if many people will have an idea of this gap between the events of the New Testament and the book that emerged, few probably appreciate how little we know about the first Christian Bible. The <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">oldest complete</a> New Testament that survives today is from the fourth century, but it had predecessors which have long since turned to dust. </p>
<p>So what did the original Christian Bible look like? How and where did it emerge? And why are we scholars still arguing about this some 1,800 years after the event?</p>
<h2>From oral to written</h2>
<p>Historical accuracy is central to the New Testament. The issues at stake were pondered in the book itself by Luke the Evangelist as he discusses the reasons for writing what became his eponymous Gospel. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">He writes</a>: “I too decided to write an orderly account … so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” </p>
<p>In the second century, church father Irenaeus of Lyons argued for the validity of the Gospels by <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103301.htm">claiming that</a> what the authors first preached, after receiving “perfect knowledge” from God, they later put down in writing. Today, scholars differ on these issues – from the American writer Bart Ehrman <a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062285201/jesus-before-the-gospels/">stressing</a> how much accounts would be changed by the oral tradition; to his Australian counterpart Michael Bird’s <a href="https://readingacts.com/2014/12/26/book-review-michael-bird-the-gospel-of-the-lord-part-1/">argument that</a> historical ambiguities must be tempered by the fact that the books are the word of God; or the British scholar <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7431/jesus-and-the-eyewitnesses-2nd-ed.aspx">Richard Bauckham’s</a> emphasis on eye-witnesses as guarantors behind the oral and written gospel. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Paul: numero uno.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg#/media/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The first New Testament books to be written down are reckoned to be the 13 that comprise <a href="http://tyndalearchive.com/scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/letters.htm">Paul’s letters</a> (circa 48-64 CE), <a href="https://www.enterthebible.org/newtestament.aspx?rid=1">probably</a> beginning with 1 Thessalonians or Galatians. Then comes the Gospel of Mark (circa 60-75 CE). The remaining books – the other three Gospels, letters of Peter, John and others as well as Revelation – were all added before or around the end of the first century. By the mid-to-late hundreds CE, major church libraries would have had copies of these, sometimes alongside other manuscripts <a href="http://www.bible.ca/b-canon-rejected-books.htm">later deemed apocrypha</a>. </p>
<p>The point at which the books come to be seen as actual scripture and canon is a matter of debate. Some <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-formation-and-significance-of-the-christian-biblical-canon-9780567075468/">point to</a> when they came to be used in weekly worship services, circa 100 CE and in some cases earlier. Here they were treated on a par with the old Jewish Scriptures that would become the Old Testament, which for centuries had been taking pride of place in synagogues all over latter-day Israel and the wider Middle East. </p>
<p>Others emphasise <a href="https://standingonshoulders.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/where-did-the-term-old-testament-and-new-testament-come-from/">the moment</a> before or around 200 CE when the titles “Old” and “New Testament” <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0198.xml">were</a> introduced <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Tertullian.shtml">by the</a> church. This dramatic shift clearly acknowledges two major collections with scriptural status making up the Christian Bible – relating to one another as old and new covenant, prophecy and fulfilment. This reveals that the first Christian two-testament bible was by now in place.</p>
<p>This is not official or precise enough for <a href="https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/the-canon-debate-9780801047084">another group</a> of scholars, however. They prefer to focus on the late fourth century, when the so-called canon lists entered the scene – such as <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Athanasius.shtml">the one</a> laid down by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367 CE, which acknowledges 22 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. </p>
<h2>Bible #1</h2>
<p>The oldest surviving full text of the New Testament is the beautifully written <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">Codex Sinaiticus</a>, which was “<a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx">discovered</a>” at the St Catherine monastery at the base of Mt Sinai in Egypt in the 1840s and 1850s. Dating from circa 325-360 CE, it is not known where it was scribed – <a href="https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/codex-sinaiticus-discovered/">perhaps</a> Rome or Egypt. It is made from parchment of animal hides, with text on both sides of the page, written in continuous Greek script. It combines the entire New and Old Testaments, though only about half of the old survives (the New Testament has some fairly minor defects). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Codex Sinaiticus, Book of Matthew.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG#/media/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sinaiticus may not be the oldest extant bible, however. Another compendium of Old and New Testaments is the <a href="https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209">Codex Vaticanus</a>, which is from around 300-350 CE, though substantial amounts of both testaments are missing. These bibles differ from one another in some respects, and <a href="https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/studies/3/S00005-507d9078d7fe9Blumell.pdf">also from</a> modern bibles – after the 27 New Testament books, for example, Sinaiticus includes as an appendix the two popular Christian edifying writings <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html">Epistle of Barnabas</a> and <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html">Shepherd of Hermas</a>. Both bibles also have a different running order – placing <a href="https://bible.org/seriespage/4-pauline-epistles">Paul’s letters</a> after <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/gospels.html">the Gospels</a> (Sinaiticus), or after <a href="http://biblescripture.net/Acts.html">Acts</a> and the <a href="https://biblehub.com/library/schaff/history_of_the_christian_church_volume_i/section_87_the_catholic_epistles.htm">Catholic Epistles</a> (Vaticanus).</p>
<p>They both <a href="http://www.theologische-buchhandlung.de/bonwerke.htm">contain</a> interesting features such as special devotional or creedal demarcations of sacred names, known as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31183157/THE_FORMATION_AND_SIGNIFICANCE_OF_THE_CHRISTIAN_BIBLICAL_CANON_A_STUDY_IN_TEXT_RITUAL_AND_INTERPRETATION"><em>nomina sacra</em></a>. These shorten words like “Jesus”, “Christ”, “God”, “Lord”, “Spirit”, “cross” and “crucify”, to their first and last letters, highlighted with a horizontal overbar. For example, the Greek name for Jesus, Ἰησοῦς, is written as ⲓ̅ⲥ̅; while God, θεός, is ⲑ̅ⲥ̅. Later bibles sometimes presented these in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Codex%20Petropolitanus%20Purpureus&item_type=topic">gold letters</a> or render them bigger or more <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure">ornamental</a>, and the practice endured until bible printing began around the time of the Reformation. </p>
<p>Though Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are both thought to have been copied from long-lost predecessors, in one format or the other, previous and later standardised New Testaments consisted of a four-volume collection of individual codices – the fourfold Gospel; Acts and seven Catholic Epistles; Paul’s 14 letters (including Hebrews); and the <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/rev?lang=eng">Book of Revelation</a>. They were effectively collections of collections. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Papyrus 46 extract.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in the absence of a single book prior to the fourth century, we have to content ourselves with the many surviving older fragments sensationally found during the 20th century. We <a href="https://larryhurtado.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/nt-papyri1.pdf">now have</a> some 50 fragmentary New Testament manuscripts written on papyrus that date from the second and third centuries – including the valuable <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P45">Papyrus 45</a> (fourfold Gospel and Acts), and <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P46">Papyrus 46</a> (a collection of Pauline letters). In all, these comprise almost complete or partial versions of 20 of the 27 books in the New Testament. </p>
<p>The quest will likely continue for additional sources of the original books of the New Testament. Since it is somewhat unlikely anyone will ever find an older Bible comparable with Sinaiticus or Vaticanus, we will have to keep piecing together what we have, which is already quite a lot. It’s a fascinating story which will no doubt continue to provoke arguments between scholars and enthusiasts for many years into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomas Bokedal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The curious case of Bible #1, and how much we actually know about it.Tomas Bokedal, Associate Professor in New Testament, NLA University College, Bergen; and Lecturer in New Testament, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/980672018-06-12T10:39:46Z2018-06-12T10:39:46ZWhy religions of the world condemn suicide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222671/original/file-20180611-191971-1bqhe4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mourner reads a sympathy card left for Anthony Bourdain at a makeshift memorial in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent suicides of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/kate-spade-214145">fashion designer</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/05/us/kate-spade-dead/index.html">Kate Spade</a> and <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/why-suicides-are-more-common-in-richer-neighborhoods/">celebrity chef and writer</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/us/anthony-bourdain-obit/index.html">Anthony Bourdain</a> have reminded all of us that, even for the <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/why-suicides-are-more-common-in-richer-neighborhoods/">wealthy</a>, life can become too painful to bear. </p>
<p>The sad truth is that suicide rates have been increasing in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/us/suicide-rates-increasing-bourdain.html">United States</a>. In the last decade, the suicide rate increased by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/suicide-rates-are-30-percent-1999-cdc-says-n880926">nearly 30 percent,</a> with <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/u-s-suicide-rates-reach-30-year-high-especially-for-women-672031299528">women</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/social-media-contributing-rising-teen-suicide-rate-n812426">teens</a> particularly affected. </p>
<p>And it’s not just the United States. Suicide is increasingly taking a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/31/suicides-of-nearly-60000-indian-farmers-linked-to-climate-change-study-claims">toll on individuals</a> and families <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80563&page=1">throughout the world</a>. </p>
<p>The ethics of self-inflicted death have historically been an important area of reflection for the world’s religions.</p>
<h2>Whose life is it?</h2>
<p>Many of the world’s religions have traditionally condemned suicide because, as they believe, human life fundamentally belongs to God.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of world’s religions have beliefs that condemn suicide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Religious_symbols.svg">Jossifresco, revisions by AnonMoos</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Jewish tradition, the prohibition against suicide <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/suicide-in-jewish-tradition-and-literature/">originated</a> in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+5-9&version=ESV">Genesis 9:5</a>, which says, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning.” This means that humans are accountable to God for the choices they make. From this perspective, life belongs to God and is not yours to take. Jewish civil and religious law, the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/talmud-101/">Talmud</a>, withheld from a suicide the <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/suicide-in-judaism">rituals and treatment</a> that were given to the body in the case of other deaths, such as burial in a Jewish cemetery, though this is not the case today. </p>
<p>A similar perspective shaped <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9f07/c3f950da57a489dc8348fcf63db61faa8ce0.pdf">Catholic teachings</a> about suicide. <a href="http://www.augustinian.org/saint-augustine/">St. Augustine of Hippo</a>, an early Christian bishop and philosopher, wrote that “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120101.htm">he who kills himself is a homicide</a>.” In fact, according the <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/library/CATECHSM/PIUSXCAT.HTM#Commandments">Catechism of St. Pius X</a>, an early 20th-century compendium of Catholic beliefs, someone who died by suicide should be denied Christian burial – a prohibition that is no longer observed.</p>
<p>The Italian poet Dante Aligheri, in “The Inferno,” extrapolated from traditional Catholic beliefs and placed those who had committed the sin of suicide on the seventh level of hell, where they exist in the <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/dante/inferno/13/">form of trees</a> that painfully bleed when cut or pruned. </p>
<p>According to traditional Islamic understandings, the fate of those who die by suicide is similarly dreadful. <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e758">Hadiths</a>, or sayings, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad warn Muslims against committing suicide. The hadiths say that those who <a href="http://hadithoftheday.com/suicide/">kill themselves</a> suffer hellfire. And in hell, they will continue to inflict pain on themselves, according to the method of their suicide.</p>
<p>In Hinduism, suicide is referred to by the Sanskrit word “atmahatya,” literally meaning “soul-murder.” “Soul-murder” is said to produce a string of karmic reactions that prevent the soul from obtaining liberation. In fact, Indian folklore has numerous stories about those who commit suicide. According to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09552369608575426?journalCode=casp20">Hindu philosophy of birth and rebirth</a>, in not being reincarnated, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PD-flQMc1ocC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=bhut+pret+suicide&source=bl&ots=IFPz_TVB19&sig=VvLt5TIFvgyGH51MAO8T3wt7Z6Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhi46PyczbAhUDu1MKHWL2DCQQ6AEIZjAK#v=onepage&q=bhut%20pret%20suicide&f=false">souls linger on</a> the earth, and at times, trouble the living. </p>
<p>Buddhism also prohibits suicide, or aiding and abetting the act, because such self-harm <a href="http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol4/suicide_as_a_response_to_suffering.html">causes more suffering rather than alleviating it.</a> And most basically, suicide violates a fundamental <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-five-precepts/">Buddhist moral precept</a>: to abstain from taking life.</p>
<h2>Altruistic suicide</h2>
<p>While many religions have traditionally prohibited suicide when motivated by despair, certain forms of suicide, for the community or for a greater good, are permitted, and at times, even celebrated.</p>
<p>In his classic work <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/On_Suicide.html?id=Dk31PO6cLW4C">“On Suicide,”</a> French sociologist <a href="http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Biography.html">Emile Durkheim</a> used the term “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16006395">altruistic suicide</a>” to describe the act of killing oneself in the service of a higher principle or the greater community. And consciously sacrificing one’s life for God, or for other religious ends, has historically been the most prominent form of “altruistic suicide.”</p>
<p>Recently, Pope Francis has added another category for sainthood, that of <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">giving up one’s life for another</a>, called “oblatio vitae.” Of course, both Christianity and Islam have strong conceptions of martyrdom, which also extend to intentionally giving one’s life in battle. For example, the Crusader <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DvJP7qIePPQC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=hugh+the+insane+crusades+suicide&source=bl&ots=bsbfSG1Own&sig=UdadRT98Vv0PgfdesP-BtYG2U80&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl_ae5mszbAhWNwFMKHbtXAzgQ6AEINTAF#v=onepage&q=hugh%20the%20insane%20crusades%20suicide&f=false">Hugh the Insane</a> self-destructively leapt out of the tower of a besieged castle in order to crush and kill Turkish soldiers below. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A candlelit vigil to remember two Tibetans who self-immolated in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Buddhist monks have burned themselves to death, most famously in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/19/self.immolation.history/index.html">Vietnam</a>, but also in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/world/asia/china-tibet-self-immolations.html">Tibet</a>, to draw attention to violence and oppression. And within Hinduism, there is a tradition of ascetics fasting to death after they gained enlightenment. Then there are the ancient Hindu traditions of <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399318/obo-9780195399318-0082.xml">“sati”</a>, where the wife dies on her husband’s funeral pyre, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/jauhar">“jauhar”</a>, the ritual self-immolation of an entire community of women when they were certain of defeat in war and consequent enslavement. </p>
<p>What unifies all these examples is the idea that there are principles or goals that are more important than life itself. And so, self-sacrifice is not suicide: letting go of life because of faith is different, from letting go of life because of lack of hope.</p>
<h2>Rethinking suicide</h2>
<p>While striving to emphasizing the sacredness of life, it’s most certainly the case that traditional religious prohibitions against suicide provide little comfort to those who contemplate taking their own life, not to mention to the loved ones who will be left behind.</p>
<p>The good news is that today, there are more and more <a href="https://www.speakingofsuicide.com/resources">resources for talking about and preventing suicide</a>. In particular, world religions have become more sympathetic and nuanced in their understanding. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/depression-and-suicide-resources/">Jews</a>, <a href="http://www.ncpd.org/sites/default/files/National%20Federation%20for%20Catholic%20Youth%20Web%20Resources%20for%20Suicide.pdf">Catholics</a>, <a href="http://muslimmentalhealth.com/news/?p=549">Muslims</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewholecek.com/suicide-from-a-buddhist-perspective/">Buddhists</a> and <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/Facebook-launches-suicide-prevention-tools-in-India/article14424072.ece">Hindus</a> have all established extensive outreach programs to those who suffer from suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p>Such efforts recognize that God especially loves those who suffer in the darkness of depression. Suicide then is not an act that calls for divine punishment, but an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/suicide-rates-are-30-percent-1999-cdc-says-n880926">all-too-common</a> threat that calls us to reaffirm hope in life as a precious gift given by God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most religions have a fundamental belief that all human life belongs to God.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/907372018-02-28T11:39:14Z2018-02-28T11:39:14ZAfrican rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: A brief history of gospel music’s evolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207930/original/file-20180226-140200-3025nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A choir sings traditional gospel music.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APicture_Story_Category%2C_Gospel_Explosion_2_160226-A-AJ780-002.jpg">Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The enslaved Africans <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_s_First_Africans">who first arrived</a> in the British colony of Virginia in 1619 after being forcefully removed from their natural environments left much behind, but their rhythms associated with music-making journeyed with them across the Atlantic. </p>
<p>Many of those Africans came from cultures where the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_13">mother tongue was a tonal language</a>. That is, <a href="http://www.cabrillo.edu/%7Emstrunk/Music12/Wk09/Music%20of%20Africa.htm">ideas</a> were conveyed as much by the inflection of a word as by the word itself. Melody, as we typically think of it, took a secondary role and rhythm assumed major importance. </p>
<p>For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – helped <a href="https://ourblues.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-significance-of-the-relationship-between-afro-american-music-and-west-african-music.pdf">forge a common musical consciousness</a>. In the understanding that organized sound could be an effective tool for communication, they created a world of sound and rhythm to chant, sing and shout about their conditions. Music was not a singular act, but permeated every aspect of daily life. </p>
<p>In time, versions of these rhythms <a href="http://www.library.pitt.edu/voicesacrosstime/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/0405PekarWhittakerWorkSongs.html">were attached</a> to work songs, field hollers and street cries, many of which were accompanied by dance. The creators of these forms drew from an African cultural inventory that favored communal participation and call and response singing wherein a leader presented a musical call that was answered by a group response. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZPrZ-YsD6sc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A cornfield holler.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As my <a href="https://theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/viewFile/738/388">research</a> confirms, eventually, the melding of African rhythmic ideas with Western musical ideas <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/history-african-american-music">laid the foundation</a> for a genre of African-American music, in particular spirituals and, later, gospel songs. </p>
<h2>Spirituals: A journey</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.sananet.org/travel-grants/who-was-st-clair-drake/">John Gibb St. Clair Drake</a>, the noted Black anthropologist, points out that during the years of slavery, Christianity in the U.S. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LEWkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=sin,+guilt+and+the+afterlife&source=bl&ots=deHJzHSyK6&sig=FxRVHm1tG-VIY7v1ApvmcoXH49I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG1ue1q7zZAhVBmuAKHdr-C2cQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=sin%2C%20guilt%20and%20the%20afterlife&f=false">introduced many contradictions</a> that were contrary to the religious beliefs of Africans. For most Africans the concepts of sin, guilt and the afterlife, were new. </p>
<p>In Africa, when one sinned, it was a mere annoyance. Often, an <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/animal-sacrifices.html">animal sacrifice</a> would allow for the sin to be forgiven. In the New Testament, however, Jesus dismissed sacrifice for the absolution of sin. The Christian tenet of sin guided personal behavior. This was primarily the case in northern white churches in the U.S. where the belief was that all people should be treated equally. In the South many believed that slavery was justified in the Bible.</p>
<p>This doctrine of sin, which called for equality, became central to the preaching of the Baptist and Methodist churches.</p>
<p>In 1787, reacting to racial slights at St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, two clergymen, <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/jones-absalom-1746-1818">Absalom Jones</a> and <a href="https://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/">Richard Allen</a>, followed by a number of Blacks left and <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/first-black-denomination-in-the-us-45157">formed</a> the African Methodist Episcopal Church. </p>
<p>The new church provided an important home for the spiritual, a body of songs created over two centuries by enslaved Africans. Richard Allen published a hymnal in 1801 entitled “A Collection of Spirituals, Songs and Hymns,” some of which he wrote himself.</p>
<p>His <a href="http://www.negrospirituals.com/index.html">spirituals were infused</a> with an African approach to music-making, including communal participation and a rhythmic approach to music-making with Christian hymns and doctrines. Stories found in the Old Testament were a source for their lyrics. They focused on heaven as the ultimate escape. </p>
<h2>Spread of spirituals</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation">emancipation</a> in 1863, as African-Americans moved throughout the United States, they carried – and modified – their cultural habits and ideas of religion and songs with them to northern regions. </p>
<p>Later chroniclers of spirituals, like <a href="http://www.fiskjubileesingers.org/our_history.html">George White</a>, a professor of music at Fisk University, began to codify and share them with audiences who, until then, knew very little about them. On Oct. 6, 1871, White and the <a href="http://www.fiskjubileesingers.org/our_history.html">Fisk Jubilee Singers</a> launched a fundraising tour for the university that marked the formal emergence of the African-American spiritual into the broader American culture and not restricted to African-American churches.</p>
<p>Their songs became a form of cultural preservation that reflected the changes in the religious and performance practices that would appear in gospel songs in the 1930s. For example, White modified the way the music was performed, using harmonies he constructed, for example, to make sure <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/fisk-jubilee-singers">it would be accepted</a> by those from whom he expected to raise money, primarily from whites who attended their performances. </p>
<p>As with spirituals, the gospel singers’ <a href="http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/thomas-dorsey">intimate relationship with God’s living presence</a> remained at the core as reflected in titles like “I Had a Talk with Jesus,” “He’s Holding My Hand” and “He Has Never Left Me Alone.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OR35dT6aKDc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">He Never Has Left Me Alone.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The rise of gospel</h2>
<p>Gospel songs – while maintaining certain aspects of the spirituals such as hope and affirmation – also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YipwAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=i+am+going+to+bury+myself+in+Jesus+arms&source=bl&ots=hW-PTDFcGo&sig=7wRp58M_2nx3a24VdwuxU_Ocv3Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh6Im5pcHZAhUMq1kKHaQxBbEQ6AEIQjAJ#v=onepage&q=i%20am%20going%20to%20bury%20myself%20in%20Jesus%20arms&f=false">reflected and affirmed</a> a personal relationship with Jesus, as the titles “The Lord Jesus Is My All and All,” “I’m Going to Bury Myself in Jesus’ Arms” and “It Will Be Alright” suggest.</p>
<p>The rise of gospel song was also <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration">tied</a> to the second major African-American migration that occurred at turn of the 20th century, when many moved to northern urban areas. By the 1930s, the African-American community was experiencing changes in religious consciousness. New geographies, new realities and new expectations became the standard of both those with long-standing residence in the North and the recently arrived.</p>
<p>For the former, there was little desire to retain what some called “corn-shucking” songs, songs associated with plantation life. New arrivals, however still welcomed the jubilant fervor and emotionalism of camp meetings and revivals that included, among other things, the ring shout, a form of singing that in its original form included singing while moving in a counterclockwise circle often to a stick-beating rhythm. </p>
<p>The 1930’s were also the era of <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/georgia-tom-dorsey-1899-1993">Thomas A. Dorsey</a>, the father of gospel music. Dorsey began his campaign to make gospel acceptable in church after the tragic death of his wife and child. A former bluesman who performed under the name of Georgia Tom, Dorsey, after his tragic loss, rededicated his life to the church. His first gospel song published was “If You See My Savior.” He went on to publish 400 gospel songs, with the best known being “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4HNZNvlhlN4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Thomas A. Dorsey discusses his gospel song “Precious Lord.”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dorsey was also one of the founders of the first gospel chorus in Chicago, and, with associates, chartered the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, the precursor to gospel groups in today’s Black churches. </p>
<h2>Gospel song and the Hammond organ</h2>
<p>In the ‘30s Black gospel churches in the North originally, began <a href="http://theatreorgans.com/grounds/docs/history.html">using the Hammond organ</a>, which had been newly invented, in services. This trend quickly spread to St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia and beyond. The Hammond was introduced in 1935 as a cheaper version of the pipe organ. A musician could now play melodies and harmonies but had the added feature of using his feet to play the bass as well. This enhanced the players’ ability to control melody, harmony and rhythm through one source.</p>
<p>The Hammond became an indispensable companion to the sermon and the musical foundation of the shout and praise breaks. Solo pieces within the service imitated the rhythms of traditional hymns in blues-infused styles that created a musical sermon, a practice still common in gospel performances. </p>
<p>Gospel’s journey <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9tFpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=the+popularity+of+African+American+gospel+song+today+and+its+role+in+the+church&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxsJiasMHZAhXyc98KHU-dC_U4ChDoAQhFMAY#v=onepage&q=the%20popularity%20of%20African%20American%20gospel%20song%20today%20and%20its%20role%20in%20the%20church&f=false">continues today</a> producing musicians of extraordinary dedication who continue to carry the word. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLDKGbhr5Ps?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cory Henry, American jazz organist and pianist, gospel musician, and music producer, paying a tribute.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> I have received five grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the following years 2012 - $200,749.00; 2014 - 179,985.00; 2015 - 177,917; 2016 - 179,800.</span></em></p>For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – became a tool of communication about their conditions. Later, it laid the foundation for spirituals and gospel songs.Robert Stephens, Professor of World Music, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922962018-02-23T11:34:23Z2018-02-23T11:34:23ZSeal of the Prophet Isaiah: sorting out fact from fantasy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207637/original/file-20180223-108146-1qqxv6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The remains of what has been identified as Isaiah's seal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ouria Tadmor/ Eilat Mazar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an article in <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/prophet-isaiah-signature-jerusalem/">Biblical Archaeology Review</a> Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist associated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced the discovery of a clay seal that appears to bear the name of the biblical prophet Isaiah, who lived in the eighth century BC. The 2,700-year-old seal impression was unearthed <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/the-ophel-treasure/">in the Ophel</a>, an ancient fortified area located at the base of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where Mazar has been excavating for some years.</p>
<p>Isaiah is one of the most important Old Testament prophets, who predicted the birth of Jesus Christ. He also appears to have been an important court official, worthy of carrying his own seal. In her article, Mazar argues that the inscription on the seal should be translated as “belonging to the prophet Isaiah”. In other words, this small clay nugget preserves what might be called the “signature” of the biblical prophet.</p>
<p>Mazar’s translation is complicated by the fact that the seal is partially damaged: the second part of the inscription that contains the word for “prophet” is missing its final letter and is thus incomplete. Some, like noted paleographer Christopher Rollston, <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/prophet-isaiah-jerusalem-seal-archaeology-bible/">have pointed</a> to the possibility that these letters are just a surname. Anticipating this objection, Mazar offers some persuasive arguments about why we should translate the inscription as belonging to “Isaiah the prophet”. But because the seal is damaged, the question of how to read the seal will never be fully resolved.</p>
<p>These translation issues aside, there is the larger question of what the discovery of an authentic Isaiah seal actually means.</p>
<h2>Isaiah the man</h2>
<p>In the first place, the seal confirms something scholars never doubted: Isaiah was an historical figure who lived and worked in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC. According to the beginning of the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+1">Isaiah</a>, he enjoyed a lengthy career that spanned the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. </p>
<p>In addition to writing some of the most eloquent, theologically significant, and historically influential poetry in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah was an important man in his own day. The composite biblical portrait of Isaiah portrays him as an authority figure in ancient Jerusalem. He was important enough to be called upon by King Hezekiah – one of the Bible’s few “good” kings – for advice and seemed to have unencumbered access to the monarch (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2019:20">2 Kings 19:20; 20</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Isaiah as portrayed on an 18th-century Russian icon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the seal truly belongs to Isaiah, then it cements the scholarly view that Isaiah was – in contrast to itinerant outsider prophets such as Amos or John the Baptist – a professional religious worker who enjoyed the privileged status that accompanied being an adviser of the king. In short: it adds texture to our impression of ancient Israelite religio-political affairs. </p>
<p>For Christians, documenting evidence of the life of Isaiah holds particular importance. Christian tradition interprets Isaiah’s words as prophecies about the Virgin Birth, the nature of being a messiah and the universal relevance of Jesus’ messianic identity to both gentiles and Jews. Indeed, in some <a href="http://christians-worldview.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/isaiah-fifth-evangelist.html">circles</a>, he is known as “The Fifth Evangelist”, a title that implicitly places him on a par with the writers of the New Testament gospels. </p>
<h2>Politicising history</h2>
<p>The danger with an exciting find like this one is that the growing excitement over the discovery will move away from its particular historical relevance. In the past, artefacts that overlap with biblical records have taken on a talismanic quality in which a new find is used to support broader religious, political, and ideological claims. </p>
<p>To name but two examples: the reference to the Israelite people in the <a href="https://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/merneptah-stele-faq.htm">Victory Stele</a> of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (1207BC), which is the earliest reference to Israel outside the Bible, and the <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/the-tel-dan-inscription-the-first-historical-evidence-of-the-king-david-bible-story/">mention of the House of David</a> in the Tel Dan inscription, from the 9th-century BC, are often <a href="http://www.truthnet.org/index.php/25-reasons-to-believe/398-12-reason-biblical-archeology">cited</a> as evidence that the biblical narrative is true.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ophel in Jerusalem: the Kidron Valley and Mount of Olives are in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JPF-Ophel_-_City_of_David.JPG">Joe Freeman via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In October 2017, the American evangelical politician Michelle Bachman <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michele-bachmann-every-archaeological-find-has-only-proved-the-authenticity-of-the-bible/">remarked</a> that “every archaeology (sic) find that has ever come forward has only proved the authenticity of the Bible”. Looking past the deeply problematic omission of the many discoveries that conflict with biblical historical narratives, Bachman is leveraging historical artefacts about the past to make grand sweeping statements about the accuracy of the Bible.</p>
<h2>Digging up the past</h2>
<p>The tendency to use archaeological artefacts in this way is hardly unique to the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant. The same phenomenon <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-ugly-nationalist-politics-of-human-origins">is at work</a> in efforts to identify and claim national ownership of the earliest human remains. Evolutionary theories about the geographical origins of the human race are closely tied to nationalism and politics. As anthropologist <a href="https://evolution-institute.org/profile/jonathan-marks/">Jon Marks</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Ex-Apes-Think-about-Evolution/dp/0520285824/ref=as_at?linkCode=w50&tag=thedailybeast-autotag-20&imprToken=lpjOCJ.Gk2zh0DSzrZJp2A&slotNum=0">argued</a>, those who claim to own the earliest example of human remains get to play a pivotal role in the story of human evolution.</p>
<p>All attempts to tell history are also weighed down by our current commitments: whether scholars choose to write about military heroes, women, slaves or animals reveals a great deal about what is valuable to us. And yet, there is something especially problematic about biblical archaeology, which, from its inception, self-consciously <a href="http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/religion-and-spirituality-digging-for-faith/675.aspx">defined</a> itself as the pursuit of material evidence that would lend tangible support to theological and textual claims.</p>
<p>The stakes are much higher when the finds take place in the politically charged environs of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-clashes-in-jerusalem-fed-by-extreme-israeli-counter-measures-47669">Temple Mount</a>. Frequently, representatives on both sides of the Israel/Palestinian divide interpret the discovery of remnants of the past in light of competing claims to ownership of the land. Too often the fetishisation of archaeological finds turns historical artefacts into ideological relics. </p>
<p>In the case of the Isaiah seal, the disputes about the way the text is translated might provide the basis for politically motivated disputes about its authenticity. And the mere potential for ideologically (as opposed to intellectually) based disagreement will make it difficult to have thoughtful conversations about its significance.</p>
<p>The Isaiah seal offers important evidence about religious life during the Judahite monarchy. But the seal does not authenticate broader religious or political claims about the authenticity and historical accuracy of what Christians call the Old Testament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candida Moss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The discovery of the signature of Christianity’s favourite prophet has caused a stir, but what does it mean?Candida Moss, Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/888762017-12-12T10:05:20Z2017-12-12T10:05:20ZModern science tackles a biblical secret – the mystery ingredient in holy incense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198461/original/file-20171211-27674-17t3oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ingredients of incense were detailed in the Old Testament.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/wideonet</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A predatory sea snail could be the source of a mystery ingredient in a holy incense recipe detailed in the Old Testament. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/murex-mollusk-family">Murex</a> whelks were just one of many suspected sources, but there was no evidence to support the claim. Until now.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17551-3">paper published today</a>, my colleagues and I report how we captured and analysed the fragrant chemicals in the smoke of whelk opercula – the trapdoor lid that protects the snail inside the shell. This provides evidence to help establish it as the most likely source of onycha, one of four major ingredients that make up holy incense.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198734/original/file-20171212-9426-11qofri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pile of opercula collected from sea snails.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kirsten Benkendorff</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ingredients are detailed in <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/EXO.30.NIV">Exodus 30:34</a>, where Moses is tasked with making incense:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Take fragrant spices – gum resin, onycha and galbanum – and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts.</p>
</blockquote>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-they-mean-to-do-that-accident-and-intent-in-an-octopuses-garden-85462">Did they mean to do that? Accident and intent in an octopuses' garden</a>
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<p>The origin of three of the ingredients are well known essential oils or resins of botanical origin. But the onycha of antiquity had not been identified with certainty and there was <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02858295">much controversy</a> over its proposed animal versus plant origin. </p>
<h2>What is that smell?</h2>
<p>Defined as fingernail or claw, onycha is a Greek translation from the original Hebrew word shecheleth, which derives from “a tear, distillation or exudation”. </p>
<p>Whelk opercula are a protein exudation, similar to fingernails, and have to be torn from the flesh before further processing. Ancient texts refer to “Unguis odoratus” (sweet hoof) as the shell or scale of snails from the Red Sea that emit a pleasant smell when burned.</p>
<p>But shells – and opercula – do not smell nice when burned!</p>
<p>So after detaching the opercula from the flesh of the snail, it has to be processed. Ancient and modern practices include rubbing with alkaline solution or soaking in vinegar followed by strong wine, before burning the dried ground powder. </p>
<p>In our experiments, we replicated these procedures using clean acetic acid and alcohol. This helped remove the “fishy” smell from the opercula before drying and grinding into a powder for chemical analysis. We found that this pre-cleaning treatment was also important for removing <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/pyridine">pyridine</a> – a toxic compound – from the opercula smoke.</p>
<h2>The ‘unclean’</h2>
<p>The main argument against the identification of sea snail opercula as the onycha of antiquity is that creatures such these were described as “unclean” animals in the Bible. Even their carcasses were considered “<a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/LEV.11.niv">unclean</a>” or “<a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/1/LEV.11.kjv">an abomination</a>”, depending of your translation of Leviticus 11:9-12.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198679/original/file-20171212-9386-yvfyhd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six species of purple dye-producing Muricidae molluscs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kirsten Benkendorff</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But one particular group of sea snails, the Muricidae or murex, were highly regarded as a source of Tyrian purple (shellfish purple) and tekhelet (biblical blue). In biblical times, these shellfish were the only known source of an insoluble purple dye. </p>
<p>The incorporation of purple and blue dyed yarn is prescribed for use in the tabernacle and garments worn by high priests (Exodus <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/EXO.26.NIV">26</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/EXO.28.NIV">28</a>). </p>
<p>This indicates that the spiritual leaders of the time were not opposed to using products from these sea snails for holy purposes. </p>
<h2>The lost knowledge</h2>
<p>It is likely the specific ingredients and process for making sacred incense was a closely guarded secret. The scriptures dictate that its use was purely for holy purposes. It was not to be made for personal use, at the risk of being cutoff from the entire community. </p>
<p>Until recently, the secret of dying with biblical blue from the snails was <a href="http://www.therarestblue.com">lost</a>, as a consequence of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Temple-of-Jerusalem">destruction of second holy temple</a> in Jerusalem in 70CE and the subsequent dispersal of Jews from their homeland. </p>
<p>Furthermore, with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453">fall of Constantinople</a> in 1453 AD, the purple shellfish dying industry collapsed and the tradition was lost in the Mediterranean region for many centuries. </p>
<h2>A modern analysis</h2>
<p>So how did we go about trying to provide chemical evidence to support the use of opercula from dye producing sea snails in holy incense? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198675/original/file-20171212-9422-1043oh9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kirsten Benkendorff preparing extracts from the opercula for analysis by gas chromatography mass spectrometry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Craig Sillitoe</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used a purpose built apparatus to burn the opercula in glass tubes. We then trapped the smoke in solvent using a vacuum, before drying down the extract for chemical analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. </p>
<p>Our analyses revealed that when burnt, the opercula releases aromatic phenols – compounds that are often used in the fragrance industry as antioxidants. We also detected chlorinated phenols that have a medicinal scent at very low concentrations. </p>
<p>These smoke compounds are consistent with reported use of the opercula contributing to the long-lasting smell of incense. The medicinal fragrance of opercula smoke is also highly compatible with the use of sacred incense for purifying the holy temple and ritualised cleansing during spiritual ceremonies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198680/original/file-20171212-9392-1wwa6jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stages of processing the opercula (left to right): The opercula still attached to the foot of purple dye-producing sea snail Dicathais orbita; freshly detached opercula; opercula after crushing and soaking in acetic acid; dry ground opercula powder and vials contain extracts of the opercula smoke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kirsten Benkendorff</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is impossible to conclusively identify the biblical onycha, without original samples for retrospective comparative analysis. But a multi-disciplinary perspective that takes into consideration the historical use of these snails – along with our new chemical information on the scent qualities of the smoke – provides strong support for the opercula from dye-producing whelks.</p>
<h2>Species decline</h2>
<p>Archaeological evidence indicates that the ancient demand for dye-producing sea snails led to <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Tyrian_Purple/">over-exploitation</a> and an associated decline in the populations of some species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198735/original/file-20171212-9396-26i8ce.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Piles of shells from a purple dye producing Murex sea snails in a processing factory in Tuticorin, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kirsten Benkendorff</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>Similarly, modern demand for the shellfish dyes in regional artisan industries and the worldwide fishery for food and ornate shells, is <a href="https://maritimestudiesjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2212-9790-12-3">placing pressure on natural populations</a>.</p>
<p>While the opercula can be obtained as a byproduct from other fishing activities, many regional shell fisheries are not effectively monitored. This problem is exacerbated by uncertainty surrounding the impacts of ocean climate change and worldwide mass mortalities in shellfish resulting from disease events. </p>
<p>It is therefore essential that all sea snail fisheries are carefully managed and new opportunities for aquaculture are explored to ensure a sustainable supply to meet future demands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Benkendorff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The four ingredients for holy incense are listed in the Old Testament, but there was much debate over the origin of one of them – onycha. Scientists think they’ve now confirmed the source.Kirsten Benkendorff, Associate Professor in Marine Biology, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/836562017-09-13T12:30:31Z2017-09-13T12:30:31ZHow better education has built a more secular Britain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185688/original/file-20170912-10821-tijd4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dome-church-chapel-spire-cross-christian-436124869?src=aXFTuTvalZR0Mn8Fuseing-2-28">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s official: the people of Great Britain have lost faith. New research from the <a href="http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-34/key-findings/context.aspx">British Social Attitudes survey</a> reveals that 71% of young people are not religious. Overall, 53% of the population in England and Wales are non-religious. It is the first time that following a religion has been a minority position. Only 18% of people are actively practising.</p>
<p>So why is this happening? Are the young just feckless, uninterested, or has society somehow “failed” to persuade them that religion should be part of their lives? Around 20% of British schools are, after all, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi_kYDnnpXWAhXJfxoKHdaaCAAQFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearchbriefings.files.parliament.uk%2Fdocuments%2FSN06972%2FSN06972.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFzYM3SbNs2HASb04Sdqetk3DzOfw">“faith schools”</a>. Surely a religious school, chosen by parents, should produce young people who are religious? </p>
<p>But perhaps not. It may well be that our improving education system is having an effect on the belief systems at work in such schools.</p>
<p>It seems to me that with better education, the teaching of critical thinking, and improvements in general scientific knowledge and understanding, the faith system that religions operate under is failing to convince young people to adopt their beliefs. It’s happened before.</p>
<p>One of the most famous scientists to have “lost faith” was Charles Darwin, who drifted away from religion as his understanding of science and the world increased. Many believe his loss of faith came after the death from tuberculosis of his beloved ten-year-old daughter Annie in 1851. It was certainly a major blow, but <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0498.2012.00256.x/abstract">evidence from Darwin’s writing</a> reveals a more complex (and earlier) departure from Christianity.</p>
<p>As a youth, Darwin was religious (although, he said, never devout). As a theology student at Cambridge, having left medical training in Edinburgh, he confessed to not being able “without hesitation” to confirm his belief in God. His discovery of evolution theory didn’t contribute much to his loss of faith – but study of the various people he met on his travels did.</p>
<p>Why, he wondered, if there’s only one God, are so many worshipped? This, along with a realisation that the Old Testament, far from being factual was obviously metaphorical or allegorical, meant that over time he became less religious. One thing he never lost, however, was a belief in a “first cause” for the beginning of everything.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185698/original/file-20170912-3782-1r6v7nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darwin: not devout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-december-11-profile-charles-237988723?src=T-ojngpadt7XQYqZi0LMNA-1-40">Shutterstock/Machado</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The current British education system values critical thinking. The acceptance of something “just because” is not enough. Children are taught to question things. They are encouraged to engage in problem solving, using logic and logical thinking to make decisions.</p>
<p>The problem for religion is that it can be very illogical. Take, for example, the idea of a talking snake, or people turning into salt, or a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+5:32-10:1&version=KJV">600-year-old man building a boat</a> to house every species of animal. This is what Darwin realised – such stories were just stories. Not fact, not truth.</p>
<p>The Church today would claim, rightly, that they don’t teach such things as fact, but as mythical tales designed to provide moral guidance. If we examine the Bible more closely, however, we will find some of its “morality” questionable. Even devout Christians would not countenance stoning an adulterer, but <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/stoning.html">this was a Biblical stance</a>. Relevance also comes to mind. If the Bible doesn’t provide a factual account of much and promotes morally questionable things, how can it be relevant today?</p>
<p>As an agnostic and researcher into creationism, I encounter many ultra-evangelical Christians who believe the Bible from first word to last, including the talking snake and the <a href="https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/is-noahs-ark-myth/">story of Noah</a>.</p>
<p>These people show, in extremis, that belief and faith can be irrational and without evidence – that these are its key characteristics. In life, in modern society and in education, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00219266.2014.943790">we are now far more dependent on evidence</a>. </p>
<h2>Losing its religion</h2>
<p>This is a rational way of thinking and it is a rational position to take. It also means that when new evidence comes along that contradicts what we thought we knew, we can change our minds. With faith and belief, the process of changing your position is so much more difficult – it is uncomfortable and it undermines the fundamental basis of faith.</p>
<p>So what should religious communities do about their dwindling congregations? It’s clear that being born into a religious family or going to a faith school will not necessarily increase religious uptake. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185697/original/file-20170912-3792-1l32vu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seats to fill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stained-glass-windows-small-church-wood-144519818?src=qiHxij7NnJe1gB6qv2pXhw-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One answer may be to prevent the labelling of children with a faith at birth, after their parents’ religion. And in schools (which in my view should be secular) teach all children <em>about</em> the various religions, but don’t teach them <em>to be part</em> of a religion. </p>
<p>Joining a faith should be a positive and informed choice by an individual. Perhaps entry to any religion should be restricted to an age where young people can think through the consequences of their decision, perhaps at age 16 or 18. </p>
<p>The various faiths must concentrate more on their role in the community, rather than being an organisation that requires blind obedience to a supernatural being. They should promote community over faith and freely acknowledge that no religion has a complete hold over how to live a good, moral and ethical life. </p>
<p>If they claim this is already their message, then it isn’t being heard. Religion has a lot of work to do if it is to survive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Logic, science and critical thinking are working miracles for non-believers.James Williams, Lecturer in Science Education, Sussex School of Education and Social Work, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/813842017-08-18T02:18:46Z2017-08-18T02:18:46ZExplaining polygamy and its history in the Mormon Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182446/original/file-20170817-28171-yv66yv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Polygamy advocate Brady Williams talks with his five wives during an interview at their home in a polygamous community outside Salt Lake City. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arrest of polygamist leader <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/15/533051035/lyle-jeffs-polygamist-accused-of-fraud-arrested-after-nearly-a-year-on-the-run">Lyle Jeffs</a>, <a href="http://local.sltrib.com/online/sw/short-creek-exodus/">evictions</a> of polygamist families and new studies on crippling <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170726-the-polygamous-town-facing-genetic-disaster">genetic disorders</a> among small ultra-orthodox or “fundamentalist” Mormon communities in rural Utah have made headlines this summer.</p>
<p>This spotlight on polygamy is likely to make the majority of Mormons who are nonfundamentalist <a href="http://religionnews.com/2016/07/20/mormon-women-fear-eternal-polygamy-study-shows/">uncomfortable</a>. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) – the mainstream Mormon Church with 15 million members worldwide – publicly rejected polygamy in 1890. But to this day, mainstream Mormons encounter stereotypes <a href="http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-seeks-to-address-public-confusion-over-texas-polygamy-group">of polygamy</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar of Mormonism and gender and a Mormon myself, I know that the truth about Mormonism and polygamy is complicated and confusing. For more than 175 years, polygamy and tensions surrounding it have defined what it means to be a Mormon – especially a Mormon man. </p>
<h2>Beginning of polygamy</h2>
<p>Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, the Mormon movement from its beginnings offered a unique perspective on the religious role of men. </p>
<p>One of the most influential events in the life of Joseph Smith was the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-heaven-as-it-is-on-earth-9780199793570?cc=us&lang=en&">death of his 25-year-old brother Alvin</a> in 1823. In 1836, Joseph Smith had a vision of Alvin Smith in heaven. Based on this vision, he developed the Mormon teaching that families could be together in heaven if they underwent religious rites – called “<a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Sealing">sealings</a>” – in Mormon temples. Any faithful Mormon approved by church leaders could perform these sealings.</p>
<p>Due in part to this powerful role it gave to men in helping to save the people they loved and brought to heaven, Mormonism attracted proportionally <a href="http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4886/">more male converts</a> than any other American religious movement of the time. </p>
<p>In the early 1830s, Smith extended this view of the role of men to include polygamy as it was practiced by Old Testament prophets like Abraham. Smith taught that a righteous man could help numerous women and children go to heaven by being “sealed” in plural marriage. Large families multiplied a man’s glory in the afterlife. This teaching was <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132">established as doctrine in 1843</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182449/original/file-20170817-28181-8wufpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Smith.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zoovroo/2729956170/in/photolist-5aeJRQ-3AF8D-5aavgP-8PNw5i-dAbGkA-6CVKdy-e2Yexy-4tXUSf-7ohifK-6KZb6E-GphxM-4VtUVy-i5f1zK-f6CsHS-4ajTB8-nFUSEV-667mJT-7omcKS-66bB1h-obFoE2-7ohioK-667mAv-8Jo7vw-2aF1r-8PNDA4-RCsNh-81sjNi-nDVaoW-5Au4h6-6vNmXw-f1qSnj-f3LUqE-57togn-f1bupZ-4tGSZz-AwVjH-7ohiaV-objFg-4ajWoF-4tLU6d-e2YeV7-dAcmW3-99hJih-6CRzN6-4Ddyqw-xuxC2-77uDH-dA3KZ8-xuxBA-5Rd8PU">Stephen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rumors that polygamy was practiced by a small cadre of LDS Church leaders spurred <a href="http://www.pbs.org/mormons/peopleevents/e_opposition.html">mob violence</a> against early Mormon settlements in Illinois and Missouri. In the face of this opposition, Smith counseled Mormon men to be “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=eUcRSIk-rjkC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=King+Follett+crafty&source=bl&ots=TAa0ebmlVF&sig=lrn8VOim8LyjO34JY__IKUZe-Bw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE59bq5N7VAhUV32MKHVGzA4cQ6AEIRjAF#v=onepage&q=crafty&f=false">crafty</a>” – contemporary scholars have interpreted this to mean alert, wise and “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-heaven-as-it-is-on-earth-9780199793570?cc=us&lang=en&">resourceful</a>” – in their practice of polygamy and use of “sealings.” </p>
<p>After the murder of Joseph Smith in 1845, Mormons migrated to Utah territory in 1847, and there, under the leadership of Brigham Young – who succeeded Joseph Smith – brought the practice of polygamy out of the shadows. LDS leaders announced plural marriage as an <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng">official Mormon Church practice in 1852</a>. </p>
<p>Following Young, Mormon <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jBhgAAAAcAAJ&dq=Patriarchal+Order,+or+Plurality+of+Wives!+By+Elder+Orson+Spencer.+Being+his+...&source=gbs_navlinks_s">theologians heralded polygamy</a> as a core doctrine and as evidence of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/23286316?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">patriarchal manliness</a>. By the 1880s, <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng">an estimated 20-30 percent of Mormon families</a> practiced polygamy.</p>
<h2>Polygamy laws, fundamentalist groups</h2>
<p>However, after the U.S. Civil War, a growing controversy over polygamy united Americans – in both the North and South. Politicians, preachers and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EU54frPI40gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=polygamy+manliness+woodruff+gordon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2iL_fhczVAhVmsVQKHeaSCyEQ6AEIXjAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false">novelists</a> decried it as an evil equal to slavery. </p>
<p>The United States Supreme Court ruled in <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807849873/the-mormon-question/">Reynolds v. the United States (1878)</a> that polygamy was an “odious” practice. <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/reynoldsvus.html">The court said,</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe, and, until the establishment of the Mormon Church, was almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and of African people. At common law, the second marriage was always void, and from the earliest history of England, polygamy has been treated as an offence against society….”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The United States Congress passed the <a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Antipolygamy_Legislation">Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887)</a> authorizing the seizure of LDS Church assets and making polygamy a federal offense. Entire families went “underground” to avoid imprisonment. Mormon men were <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-viper-on-the-hearth-9780199933808?cc=us&lang=en&">stereotyped</a> as fanatics who exploited innocent converts to satisfy their “sexual degeneracy.” Mobs in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-mormon-menace-9780199740024?cc=us&lang=en&">American South</a> in the 1880s attacked Mormon missionaries.</p>
<p>Under pressure, LDS Church President Wilford W. Woodruff <a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Manifesto_of_1890">announced in 1890</a> that the Mormon Church would no longer sanction plural marriages in adherence with the law of the United States. Still, such marriages <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/the-manifesto-and-the-end-of-plural-marriage?lang=eng">continued to be performed</a> among Mormons in Mexico – some of whom emigrated from Utah to northern Mexico specifically to continue polygamy – or by rogue LDS leaders through the 1920s.</p>
<p>In the 1930s, seven leading Mormon polygamists banded together to form a loose confederation of <a href="https://gregkofford.com/products/modern-polygamy-and-mormon-fundamentalism">Mormon fundamentalists</a> to keep polygamy going. Several were excommunicated from the mainstream LDS Church and formed close-knit fundamentalist communities across the West – from Canada to Mexico – that survive to this day. </p>
<h2>New depictions of masculinity</h2>
<p>While fundamentalist Mormons broke off from the LDS Church in the early 20th century to continue their open practice of polygamy, those who remained members of the LDS Church made a hard turn toward the American mainstream and assimilation. </p>
<p>These mainstream Mormons developed <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oMQgrBcI998C&pg=PA243&dq=creative+adjustment+arrington+bitton&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjApcSAhczVAhWms1QKHcfECs4Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=creative%20adjustment%20arrington%20bitton&f=false">new norms</a> of Mormon manhood that seemed safer to the American public. </p>
<p>Moving away from the stereotype that Mormonism was led by fanatical prophets with multiple wives and long beards, as Mormons assimilated, LDS Church leaders developed a more <a href="http://cdmbuntu.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/upcat/id/1431">modern clean-shaven appearance and a bureaucratic, corporate style</a> of managing church affairs. </p>
<p>Between 1890 and 1920, LDS participation in the Boy Scouts (which began in 1911), bans on smoking and alcohol, and conservative sexuality <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01624.x/full">helped to defined this new Mormon manhood</a>. <a href="http://donny.com/">Donny Osmond</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Young">Steve Young</a> and <a href="https://www.mittromney.com/">Mitt Romney</a> exemplify the modern Mormon norm.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182451/original/file-20170817-28163-qehkob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests in Utah in 2016 against a lawmaker’s proposal that would make polygamy a felony crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, it is my experience as a lifelong Mormon that LDS people with strong cultural and familial ties to the faith commonly believe <a href="http://religionnews.com/2016/07/20/mormon-women-fear-eternal-polygamy-study-shows/">that polygamy will be a fact of life in heaven</a>. The LDS Church publicly renounced the practice of polygamy in 1890, but it has never renounced polygamy as doctrine, as evidenced in <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132">LDS scriptures</a>. It has always permitted and continues to permit men to be married in Mormon temples “for the eternities” to more than one wife.</p>
<p>This tension between private belief and public image makes polygamy a sensitive subject for Mormons even today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Brooks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, taught that a righteous man could help numerous women and children go to heaven by being ‘sealed’ in plural marriage. Norms have been revised, but tensions remain.Joanna Brooks, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/724612017-02-09T03:47:15Z2017-02-09T03:47:15ZWhat is the true meaning of mercy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156096/original/image-20170208-17345-i0qauy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mercy matters</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsoul/2076655915/in/photolist-4avpsk-bJaZHF-bJb1f4-3n6RBN-t1K7c-dVy7PS-9i4vFj-esLjSX-6H5UmZ-9or6Mp-d3zcbY-eqW6ar-6c6KrU-8ukgsq-6DLMyo-4fEWQX-6sGyir-4fEZkM-4xHKDE-2tNemo-zTKS1-5EW9MF-2HyjW6-8cGEws-qxtcma-agbocw-dJu49c-8Um8wF-kGvtF5-71T1u3-o54gg6-7oAg1t-cNPbqu-dYqzeW-83z66m-cyKQjb-dJu9p4-c2FgcL-61nxE2-9oqG18-qSRTSJ-4iD2e-CD5cP-nvdrEV-4xwTNF-nroJw7-8u457R-5GGcFe-dEQpbD-9BUznK">Romel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world seems to be witnessing increasing levels of violence, fear and hatred that challenge us each day. There are <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bible-says-about-welcoming-refugees-72050">ongoing debates</a> about how or whether to welcome immigrants and refugees to the United States; news headlines remind us about the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/21/aleppo-syria-war-destruction-then-and-now-in-pictures">plight of Syria</a> and about the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2016/10/moises-saman-isis-qa/">horrors of the Islamic State</a>. </p>
<p>In such times, talk about mercy may seem more like wishful thinking. But mercy matters – now more than ever.</p>
<p>The extraordinary <a href="https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Story/TabId/2672/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/17147/Pope-Francis-declares-extraordinary-Holy-Year-of-Mercy.aspx">Holy Year of Mercy</a> called by Pope Francis ended in November 2016. Pope Francis <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-urges-trump-be-ethical-inauguration-2017-545477">has encouraged President Donald Trump</a> to draw upon “the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people.” </p>
<p>I recently wrote about mercy in a book, <a href="https://www.osv.com/Shop/Product?ProductCode=T1746">“Mercy Matters: Opening Yourself to the Life Changing Gift</a>.” Mercy has touched my life <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/review-mathew-schmalzs-book-mercy-matters">in many ways</a> – such as in my recovery from alcoholism and through my experiences as an adopted child. So, to me, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpDju_SXJw">mercy is</a> a “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WD_-CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false">love that responds to human need in an unexpected or unmerited way</a>.” </p>
<p>At its core, mercy is forgiveness. The Bible speaks of God’s love for sinners – that is, for all of us. But the Bible also relates mercy to other qualities beyond love and forgiveness.</p>
<p>So, how can we begin to understand the true meaning of mercy?</p>
<h2>Mercy in the Hebrew Bible</h2>
<p>Christians usually understand the “Hebrew Bible” as the “Old Testament,” which is replaced by the “New Testament” of Jesus Christ as found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. </p>
<p>How Christianity has interpreted the Hebrew Bible, often not fully appreciating its Jewish context, continues to be a matter of scholarly debate. But many Christians see connections between themes expressed in the “Old Testament” and Christ’s later teachings about the importance of mercy.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hebrew Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/firewalljc/3933345855/in/photolist-6ZzqFR-eQUozm-4VfejV-8LRQzj-62d97v-75zgtG-ffH4gf-5Y9GoZ-9dpHgJ-FHGBXV-aegj87-6zUbUc-9DCTzz-9rTHhf-6ctLJ-kiPm9T-GyAS1M-9uxRAo-5YdW5b-eTrJcy-dBgCy1-dmdf72-8KrPJp-bzSUdW-7pt7zK-5Suu7a-bGpH8B-8zkkAp-kAgEEK-EFHKv7-FL7E5Q-iFbj9P-5LREDU-e35fMD-aAEZsG-EZPq7C-EC1ZGM-9DCU8v-EGokcy-FDgdTM-bGpGTv-bWUKGn-bK53s2-FHvvBF-HKXqJ-e8pftz-GonQQ6-8RW6XU-EszH2s-FtGF4H">FirewallJC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Hebrew Bible, there is a cluster of related words that are often translated as “mercy,” depending upon where they appear in the text. There is <a href="http://www.jewishmag.com/20mag/hebrew/hebrew.htm">“ahavah,”</a> which refers to God’s enduring love for Israel, much like the love between husband and wife. Then there is <a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7356.htm">“Rachamim,”</a> which comes from the root word “rechem,” or womb, and therefore might be more literally understood as suggesting a “maternal connection” between God and human beings. </p>
<p>In a famous passage from <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/psalms/85.htm">Psalm 85</a> that speaks of the <a href="http://www.religion.ucsb.edu/faculty/thomas/classes/rgst116b/JewishHistory.html">Israelites’ return from exile</a>, it is said that when “mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed.” </p>
<p>“<a href="http://www.bible-researcher.com/chesed.html">Chesed</a>,” the word translated as “mercy” in this verse, additionally suggests God’s quality of “steadfast loyalty.” The psalm thus relates steadfastness and mercy with “truth” – in Hebrew “<a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/571.htm">emet</a>”– which means behaving ethically and being faithful to God’s will.</p>
<h2>Mercy in the Christian gospels</h2>
<p>A point of connection between the Jewish and Christian traditions is what is called the “Great Hallel.” <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hallel/">Hallel</a> means “praise” and refers to a group of psalms regularly recited at the time of the new moon as well as during important Jewish feasts like <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday5.htm">Tabernacles or Sukkot</a>, which commemorates the period the Jewish people spent in the desert on their journey to the <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm">Promised Land</a>. </p>
<p>The great Hallel is the refrain of Psalm 136 that celebrates how God’s “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+136&version=NKJV">mercy endures forever</a>.” Some scholars believe Jesus <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-03/and-jesus-sang">sang the Great Hallel</a> with his disciples when they went out to the <a href="http://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/26.htm">Mount of Olives</a> after the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26:17-30">Last Supper</a>, the final meal that he shared with his Apostles before his crucifixion.</p>
<p>Mercy sets the context for many of Jesus’ teachings. In the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/matthew.html">Gospel of Matthew</a>, Jesus tells the story of the “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18:21-35">unmerciful servant</a>” who has his own debt wiped away but refuses to forgive another servant who only owed him a few cents.</p>
<p>The story teaches us that we need to forgive others, because we have been forgiven ourselves.</p>
<h2>Jesus as the face of mercy</h2>
<p>Also in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/9-13.htm">tells his disciples</a> to understand the meaning of the phrase: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps most significantly for Christians, Jesus shows us what it means to be merciful: He healed the sick, welcomed the stranger and pardoned those who persecuted and killed him. </p>
<p>As Pope Francis tells us in <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html">Misericordiae Vultus</a>, his letter introducing the Holy Year of Mercy, Jesus’ mercy is not abstract but “visceral” – it’s something that quite literally changes us from the inside out. </p>
<p>And Christians believe that this visceral aspect of mercy comes in the personal relationship Jesus promises to all of us: a relationship based on forgiveness and love, reconciliation and truth. As Pope Francis writes in the very first sentence of <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html">Misericordiae Vultus</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Jesus Christ is the face of God’s mercy.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Practicing mercy</h2>
<p>According to the Bible, mercy does matter: It matters because we all need forgiveness. But mercy also matters because it is what can join us all together in spite of our differences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest against the immigrant ban in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fibonacciblue/32600494826/in/photolist-REN4k1-884UPZ-62tQrZ-fsR5Cq-986eJa-65tjWZ-pFneZm-62yNbs-62rrpp-65tyxM-cPJ565-64sgvS-9WRaHV-jCcszN-aeABBS-BVz62k-65xSyE-fv9DwR-62ytSy-65yfsq-62rwET-9XMkdC-4wtUS-62zNM9-rYGNHS-4vrgoH-edZZQF-9NrA4t-QqP5mX-65rpVf-rYQUhn-sgfhrT-65tA6X-65oMpP-ds95HJ-65u9CK-dWYiEE-62rAPM-pXGGBi-65rxiP-ftd5rP-62vLUL-65wNdd-64AFR9-ftsuPd-65yqHs-62yMQm-65yYQd-65vyV9-65uUmc">Fibonacci Blue</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But what does it mean – in concrete terms – to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2015/09/26/8e1faa4c-6488-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html?utm_term=.261dea06c9b5">merciful to the refugee, the immigrant</a>, not to mention to those nations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/nyregion/immigration-child-migrant-surge-in-New-York-City.html">institutions</a> and communities that face the challenge of welcoming them? What does mercy mean in Syria? What is a merciful response to the atrocities of the Islamic State, or ISIL/ISIS – a group that has been merciless in persecuting <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities">Christians, Yazidi and the Shia</a>? How might mercy shape the Trump administration’s response to Iran <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/slaps-sanctions-iran-missile-test-170203154253182.html">following its missile tests</a>, or to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world/asia/china-spratly-islands.html?_r=0">Chinese expansion in the Spratly Islands</a> and the South China Sea?</p>
<p>I certainly can’t say how mercy can be specifically applied to these challenges: The possibilities, and pitfalls, are as numerous as the various meanings associated with mercy in the Bible itself.</p>
<p>But I would like to suggest a starting point for thinking about how mercy matters. In a recent discussion about my book <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mercymatters/">“Mercy Matters</a>,” a participant related how she’s been watching both Fox News and MSNBC in a effort to expose herself to different views about crucial issues facing the United States. I never learned whether she was a Democrat or a Republican; a liberal, conservative or libertarian. </p>
<p>But what I did learn is that mercy begins by opening oneself to those with whom one might strongly disagree. Mercy doesn’t end there, of course, but it begins with such small acts of understanding, which can lead to life-changing experiences of love.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar explains how mercy could be a simple act of opening oneself to those with opposing views.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720502017-01-30T03:49:45Z2017-01-30T03:49:45ZWhat the Bible says about welcoming refugees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154667/original/image-20170130-29641-n3t7p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/essamsaad/9783878943/in/photolist-fUyWkZ-8Ydz7H-98mfPp-72YU5T-pYzLHx-aiQxbk-8We1DD-HwKEFJ-GDA3y7-ppF9F4-FEjQyG-2k25n-9r7sTb-6tgRPJ-at9LJD-88yCms-pfBVky-pz5kXu-2vVkpu-617fRh-66Gnqr-bB5RTa-aEDGUW-8Q5GDi-9eD4pR-kHmmfB-2miNR-2mj7W-agoXmM-2mjE4-HpQ3MJ-bGkhs6-aPMjdZ-9pzfoo-2mjjX-ncsUBy-hDBj-nkRFzv-dsRwez-QbN6sv-pLgzWT-2mjjW-aFuTkc-GZFavg-7Yux3d-3Nfc1M-ntU542-ddDyMm-ncpHpo-pLmC7k">Essam Saad</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Friday, Jan. 27, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/trump-syrian-refugees.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article">signed an executive order</a> that placed a stay on refugees from seven Muslim majority countries. Entrance of refugees from Syria, however, will be banned for the next 120 days. </p>
<p>Two days prior to that, he committed the United States to building a wall on its border with Mexico. Soon after the order, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/mexico-president-donald-trump-enrique-pena-nieto-border-wall/">canceled an upcoming trip</a> to the United States.</p>
<p>President Trump has also proposed that Mexican goods be taxed at the rate of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/donald-trump-mexico-import-tax-border-wall/">20 percent to provide funds</a> for building the wall. This would fulfill his campaign promise that Mexico would actually pay for the wall’s construction, in spite of America’s southern neighbor’s protests. </p>
<p>For Christians, the questions about building the border wall or permitting immigrants and refugees into the United States involve a host of associated considerations not just about the specifics of immigration law, the economics of cheap labor coming across the border or potential terrorist threats. </p>
<p>At issue are both broader and deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger. </p>
<p>As a Roman Catholic scholar who lived in South Asia for a total of four years, I know what it is like to be initially considered a “stranger” but be quickly welcomed with open arms. And I, like all Christians, look to the Bible for guidance when asking about how to best welcome the stranger. </p>
<p>So, what does the Bible actually say?</p>
<h2>We will all be strangers, sometime</h2>
<p>The Bible affirms – strongly and unequivocally – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Old Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtwiggs/58822134/in/photolist-6ctLJ-pFE9Me-r4nLvt-atgwUB-5ewgqF-oxiSFi-bmPKHz-EN4cJ-7v4iXA-8r5H1A-63vqTn-9344W4-937bqd-4yCwfq-9344SZ-sZqcC-8L9V7S-7phADp-b1Py8t-7vd23k-6KHzTP-6KHzJg-9EVyR2-9EYv99-bi5bz-4sJXhb-amT1rc-4XKsdn-6KMH6h-q8DYEt-9EYw4S-bzDUgt-8yhKSf-e7eNdT-9gBc4C-5uhyHz-63CV4c-5uhrrr-dkVGrD-bmPGrX-7QBfzv-dJu49c-6QJdyp-fj8rD-dSz74c-9hLP5g-pMPsPi-6fSXcE-8XgMPk-euSjNX">Glenn Twiggs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In “Love the Stranger,” an article written for the annual meeting of the College Theological Society in 1991, biblical scholar <a href="http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/Alice-L-Laffey">Alice Laffey</a> stated that in the Hebrew Bible, the words “gûr” and “gēr” are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VDYmQYg4ngAC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=alice+laffey+stranger&source=bl&ots=mguoUeVNuH&sig=TjOLg2kiEWcJlJ3mWfLt_8ciOxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit2MzSoOPRAhUr6YMKHSHJAFAQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=alice%20laffey%20stranger&f=false">the ones most often glossed</a> as referring to the “stranger,” though they are also translated as “newcomer” and “alien” or “resident alien,” respectively. </p>
<p>In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the word “gēr” appears almost 50 times, and the fifth book, Deuteronomy, delineates a number of specific provisions for treating “the stranger” not just with courtesy but also with active support and provision. </p>
<p>For example, the book of Deuteronomy sets out the requirement that a portion of produce be set aside by farmers every third year for strangers, widows and orphans. In the <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/jeremiah/7.htm">“temple sermon”</a> attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jewish people are exhorted to “not oppress the sojourner.” </p>
<p>Within the Hebrew Bible the requirements of hospitality are sometimes affirmed in very striking ways, as in the story from the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+19">book of Judges</a> in which a host offers his own daughter to ruffians in order to safeguard his guest. </p>
<p>Of course, the Israelites themselves were <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.713849">“strangers”</a> during their <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Exile">enslavement in Egypt and captivity in Babylon</a>. The Hebrew Bible recognizes that every one of us can be a stranger and, for that very reason, we need to overcome our fear of those who live among us whom we do not know.</p>
<h2>The stranger is Jesus in disguise</h2>
<p>Within the New Testament, which Christians read in continuity with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/matthew/25.htm">Matthew 25: 31-40</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stranger is Jesus in disguise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waitingfortheword/7019990467/in/photolist-bGkhAp-coWthJ-hoeBEs-6qCd3Z-hoem9N-hoeaKF-ovgY1U-eaNajK-hofHyX-p6bJ42-hoeHVw-cKNY7f-hofHAF-nxD3G9-DELRVD-oL7Zd8-hoeaTX-hoeaAT-mw96tH-pHpEJ2-hoemj7-hoeaQa-hofspP-8UB7Si-pquo9x-oTkDhz-qRw9a6-hoem2o-6PFDZW-mw6XdZ-hoem4s-qLKUHH-CicpQM-cKNW6W-hoesuG-4EG3sN-e4Jgoj-aLDbjK-eaNqEp-bNQbXR-acZFS7-9x81NN-aLBGjZ-ejm1tb-9x81T1-hoeaxX-nfAUzo-rctq7L-aH34hZ-p8NWT5">Waiting For The Word</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will be granted paradise and unrepentant sinners will be consigned to eternal fire. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The righteous then ask,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Christ replies, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Matthew 25 makes clear, the Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are in fact synonymous. Thus the Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in a conventional sense – but also to people whom you do not know. </p>
<p>Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus (one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries), often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3&version=ESV">it is made clear</a> that in Christ,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings.</p>
<h2>Bible is unambiguous in its message</h2>
<p>Of course, in Christianity the strong admonitions toward treating the stranger with dignity have coexisted with actions that would seem to indicate an opposite attitude: pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been sanctioned by Christians who nonetheless would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The BIble is clear in its message.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/2139794716/in/photolist-4g61qm-dLHs1G-b1cX2F-eCjg7S-6eW1XJ-JfVrhh-4DyhM-6zUbUc-dEQpbD-an8bq1-7z5qxy-bmQnV3-eCG1kv-dJYx9p-iMZkGa-DY2VD-gaUZ2v-dQ1cWv-8cGEws-5NxLHi-6zTxwt-7GYHRC-bszcyi-bszdFz-gaS4MR-8MWgjt-mEvsM4-bjVGzE-bszd6Z-aBz4b6-oxeYLd-iXdHrn-7cbVj9-gaQ3E4-pU8f5T-atXxSw-fDViWK-bvdYoP-c8qMef-4hmqCg-oeW4hC-DY2VJ-7zsrnV-ftbKiA-gaQ9CL-vZ1aj-gaQf61-6bWHMB-6c1Tth-8RevyL">Andrew Malone</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, when it comes to the specific questions concerning building a wall on America’s border with Mexico or welcoming immigrants and refugees, <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/donald-trump-election-2016-catholic-vote/">some Christians would argue</a> that doing so does not violate any biblical precepts concerning hospitality to the stranger, since the issue is one of legality and, of course, a good number of Christians did indeed support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the presidency. </p>
<p>Other Christians have taken a diametrically different position, and have called for cities and educational institutions to be set apart as <a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/11/16/nationwide-effort-to-make-college-campuses-safe-zones-for-undocumented-students/">“safe zones”</a> for undocumented immigrants. </p>
<p>It is true that the application of biblical principles to contemporary matters of policy is less than clear to the many Christians who have taken opposing sides regarding how the United States should deal with immigrants, undocumented workers and refugees.</p>
<p>However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles regarding welcoming the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar quotes Biblical passages to show how the text affirms – strongly and unequivocally – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.