“Old Testament, Old Friend”
One of my earliest memories is of my mom and I sitting in an old overstuffed chair, with her reading to me. Sometimes, I would ask for her to read the Bible. She would then ask a counter-question: “The Old Bible, or the New Bible?”
“The Old Bible,” I would usually answer. Mom was puzzled that a four-year-old would request a reading from the Old Testament. She would sometimes ask, “Do you understand what I am reading to you?” And I would answer, “Yes, momma.”
I was, of course, lying. The truth is that I liked the pictures in her Bible. I liked the picture of David slaying the lion and the giant. And what’s not to like about Noah and his floating zoo, with the giraffes’ necks sticking out the window?!
I still don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament. Yes, I understand more than I did at age four for sure. But not much. Mainly, I understand that I don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament. A Ph.D. has not dulled that insight into my own ignorance. If anything,
I am currently teaching am Old Testament theology course online for my university. One of the books I am requiring my students to read is by Matthew Richard Schlimm, This Strange and Sacred Scripture. It is a strange book about the Strange Old Testament.
However, it is a good book and well worth reading. I am speaking of Schlimm’s book here. I am also talking about the Old Testament itself.
Schlimm uses an analogy for the Old Testament that I had never considered before. The word picture that runs through his book from beginning to end is that the Old Testament is “an old friend.”
Here are some comments I made at the end of one of my Old Testament Theology student’s excellent paper.
Patrick,
Very good work!
I do not always (often?) agree with Schlimm either. However, he does get my mental juices flowing for sure!
I think that it takes many analogies to get at a book as rich and difficult as the Bible. One of the things that I like in particularly like about Schlimm’s analogy of the Old Testament as an old friend is that this analogy is literally (pun intentional) a more personal analogy.
Old friends have a different background and experience than I do. That is one of the many reasons why I hang around with old friends that I don’t entirely understand.
While I don’t have a lot of old human friends, I do have a lot of old books that are my friends. In particular—indeed in a class by itself—is the Old Testament. How I love this old friend! But love is one thing; understanding is another.
I hope that if I love well enough and deeply enough, I will come to a better and deeper understanding. I see some evidence that this may be happening in my life.
Friends stick with friends through thick and thin. I hope to stick with the Old Testament until my Friend closes my eyes in death.
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