{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1444",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1444,
    "subject": "Biblical Criticism (was: Fallible Narrators)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-06-14T09:32:42+00:00",
    "last": "2001-06-14T09:32:42+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0831@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Betty, Brian",
        "address": "bbetty at foleyhoag.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-06-14T09:32:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Biblical Criticism (was: Fallible Narrators)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: \"The issue here is not how a hypothetical Bluish\nreader might respond when faced with the Books of Silk and Horn; the issue\nis how we respond when faced with the Books of the Suns of Various Lengths\n-- [snip] -- specifically, the question \"How the hell are we supposed to\nknow what actually happened?\" How are we to make (narrative) sense of this\nwelter of provenances and possible provenances, this scribbling of narrators\nand editors, interpolators and (maybe) copyists, any one of whom may be\nalmost-arbitrarily unreliable?\"\n\nOkay, let's think about this in a different way. Let's pretend that Wolfe,\nlike me, recognises in the Bible a problem: aren't these same questions to\nbe posed about the Hebrew Bible and/or the Christian Bible? In fact, this is\nwhat I study. How are we, either as unbelievers or believers, to interpret\nwhat actually happened when the Bible is insane? No offense meant - I love\nreading the Bible and am reading it in Hebrew, but it is self-contradictory\n- from Genesis 1 on! This is not questioned by the Catholic Church, either -\nCatholics are permitted to engage in Biblical criticism.\n\nSo imagine approaching the Bible, which has little cohesion or coherence,\nbut clearly makes some narrative sense, even though it trails off, veers off\ncourse, repeats itself, etc. Imagine you believe it is attempting to impart\nthe truth of what happened, an important truth that changed the world\nforever. Repeat and rinse.\n\n\"My point (All together now... \"and I do have one\") is that the position\ninto which Wolfe places us, vis-a-vis the events which hypothetically\nunderlie the LONG/SUN books, is homologous to the position in which an\nengaged and thoughtful reader, even a skeptical one, finds herself when\nvis-a-vis the events which hypothetically underlie the Gospels -- \"Layer 1\nof Gospel formation,\" to use the RCC terminology: the actual events,\nwhatever they were, that occurred in Judaea and the surrounding area ca.\n4BC-33AD. (That \"fairly unthoughtful\" reader, in fact,  would be in a\nposition homologous to that of of a \"every word of Scripture is literally\nfactual\" fundamentalist.) I am not, of course, prepared to state that this\nwas Wolfe's intent. I do not claim to know his intent. I am stating that\nthis is an interesting homology, a use to which the Books can be put, if you\nwill; and that I would not be surprised to learn that this was one of\nWolfe's reasons for writing them the way he did, rather than some other way.\nIn an ideal world I should like to ask him about it, but this is not an\nideal world, and I don't expect the opportunity to arise any time soon.\"\n\nI see you also appreciate this opinion!\n\nI would go so far as to state this was an exploration of these issues, and\nit is hard to imagine Wolfe did it unthinkingly...\n\nAnna June\n\nSurah 101: The Calamity (al-Qari'a) \nThe qari'a\nWhat is the qari'a?\nWhat can tell you of the qari'a?\nA day humankind are like moths scattered\nAnd mountains are like fluffs of wool \nWhoever's scales weigh heavy\nHis is a life that is pleasing\nHis mother is Haayiyat\nWhat can tell you what she is? \nRaging fire "
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}