“…if He gives me food to eat
and clothes to wear, and if I come
home safe to my father’s home, then
the Lord shall be my God…” –Genesis 28: 20-21
and clothes to wear, and if I come
home safe to my father’s home, then
the Lord shall be my God…” –Genesis 28: 20-21
What does Jacob’s attitude and behavior tell us about God’s chosen people? What does it tell
us about God? Why is Jacob/Israel
depicted as such a character: a trickster, a skeptic, untrustworthy? Someone
who seems to lack faith? Someone who puts God to the test? Seemingly so unlike his grandfather
Abraham? Was it intentional? If so, why? Was it a self-portrait on the
part of the story-teller? The community?
What did the author intend? Does it matter?
Dr. Novo, a dear friend of mine, will sometimes challenge
my latest rereadings of Dante with the argument that the text may not mean what I think it means, because my reading doesn’t seem like
something Dante would have intended. And
what he means by that is: my reading of the poem doesn’t make sense in a 13th
century Italian context. He is simply asserting the logical proposition that a
13th century Italian poet probably wouldn’t have meant what I might
be proposing, because a 13th century Italian wouldn’t have thought
like that. And often I have to agree with him; sometimes I am imposing my modern ideas on
a medieval text.
However, what I now realize is that there is a much more important question than the intention of the author. And so, in the case of Dante, though I am interested in the question: Does it make sense in the context of 13th century Italy? I am even more interested in the question: Does it make sense in the context of the text?
However, what I now realize is that there is a much more important question than the intention of the author. And so, in the case of Dante, though I am interested in the question: Does it make sense in the context of 13th century Italy? I am even more interested in the question: Does it make sense in the context of the text?
In a famous letter written during his exile, Dante explained
that his poem should be read in the four-fold manner used for reading scripture. Which means that the poem should be read on
four levels: literal, allegorical, moral and anagogical. But, another element
of how we read scripture is as a document received from God, but through human
hands. We know human hands wrote it, but
we trust that the text itself is speaking to us the word of God. Yes, there may
be academic theories about sources, and interpolations, and scribal errors,
etc. And on a scholarly level those have importance. However, our ultimate concern isn’t with the
writers (or their errors), but the text itself.
Would the author of Genesis have seen anything wrong on unseemly in Jacob's skeptical acceptance of God? Would the ancient readers have been troubled at all by Jacob's "ifs"? If God does this... If God lets me arrive safely... if God gives me clothes and enough food...etc.
Would the author of Genesis have seen anything wrong on unseemly in Jacob's skeptical acceptance of God? Would the ancient readers have been troubled at all by Jacob's "ifs"? If God does this... If God lets me arrive safely... if God gives me clothes and enough food...etc.
What the author(s) or compilers intended is certainly a
question of interest, but what the text says, is a question of actual importance. For instance, when we read Genesis, we can
ask did the author intend to make Jacob a trickster? But more importantly, we
should ask what it means that he is
one.
When I read Dante, I approach it in much the same way: I
understand that Dante may or may not have intended some things I discover in
his poem. But my main concern isn’t with
his 13th century Italian intentions, but with his poem. Without
imposing my 21st century bias on it, I try to simply ask the text: What do you have to say? And then I ponder, what does that mean?