LECTURE NOTES       
HUMANITIES CORE COURSE
FALL QUARTER, WEEK 3
13-14 OCTOBER 2010

Quotes of the Day:

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For the want of a horse the rider was lost.
For the want of a rider the battle was lost.
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
                                
                                          --Anon.

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

                                          --Shakespeare, “Richard III”

What is Scripture? (Writer’s Handbook, Chapter 3)

          --not a literary genre; may be of any genre or of many
          --a literary work or collection of works recognized as
               authoritative, canonical, and reliable
               for the life of a religious community

* authoritative: established as such for the community by an authority that the community recognizes
* canonical: closed (canonized) by recognized authority so that it may not be added to; date of canonization not always clear
* reliable: either in the original language, faithfully copied, or from the original language, faithfully translated. Note that the legitimacy and authority of translations as against originals varies sharply both among the three “western” traditions, respectively, and within each.

How do we read Scripture in an academic setting? (Writer’s Handbook, Chapter 3   --what literary culture has learned: belief vs. the suspension of disbelief
          --reverence, mediated reverence, and simple courtesy: applying the experience
               of Wilfred Cantwell Smith; seeing yourself as others see you and others as you
               see yourself.

What is the distinction between a primary and a secondary source?
What difference does this distinction make?
          --in everyday usage
          --in literary criticism and scripture commentary
          --the “strangeness” of scripture and how acquiring skill in interpreting it trains
              the mind for other reading

What is the distinction between sacred and profane?

--an etymological image: pro fano as distinct from intra fanum
--intrinsic vs. extrinsic holiness; Jewish/Christian/Muslim holiness as
   classically extrinsic—only by association with God
--seeing the interpreters with the interpreted: the temple image revisited

What is the distinction between secular and religious?

--what the Constitutions, Federal and Californian, require of a state university
professor teaching Scripture: understanding the marriage of “no establishment
of religion” and no “abridging the free exercise thereof.”
--“wearing different hats,” one or more at a time: a fashion show to a
pedagogical point

What is the difference between critical and uncritical reading?
          --think back to your reading of Genesis: Did you miss anything? Did the
               instructor or a classmate notice something that you could have noticed if you
               had paid closer attention?
          --imagine that you are a “continuity editor” in a film studio
          --consider the stories of a) Abraham and the near death of Ishmael (Genesis 21)
               and b) Abraham and the near death of Isaac (Genesis 22). Did you notice
               a similarity between the two? Did you think about the differences between the
               two. Sharpen your gaze by reading Brook Haley, “Comparison and Contrast at
               the Core of the Humanities” (Writer’s Handbook, Chapter 6)
          --analytic vs. imaginative reading: Abraham and Isaac went up Moriah, only
               Abraham came back down, or so Genesis 22 reports. Now what?

THE MOSAIC COVENANT (Tanakh, the Book of Exodus)

1                           the Abrahamic Covenant, spectacularly fulfilled, enters crisis

3                           God’s launches his rescue of the Covenant: the call of Moses.
                             [Read also, from the website, Exodus 2:23-25]

11                         God escalates his war with Pharaoh by mass child slaughter

12:1-14, 29-42      the Angel of Death “passes over” the Israelites: the first “Passover”

14                         God, with Moses’ help, drowns the Egyptian army in the Red Sea

15:1-21                  Israel shouts for joy: “The Lord is a Master of War.”

17:1-16                  Israel unconvinced; God and Moses vow genocide against Amalek

19                         God addresses assembled Israel from upon, within, or above a thundering, quaking volcano  

THE MOSAIC COVENANT

24             Israel ratifies the Covenant; Moses splashes ox-blood upon them as part of the ratification ceremony,
                then returns to the brink of the volcano to hear more from God

31            God gives his specifications for a Tent of Meeting and for Sabbath observance; Moses, back at the
                summit of the volcano,  receives “stone tablets, written with the finger of God.”