"'The hunters [live by the chase], in spirit still more than in body. For them, when the big grazers go, so does the whole meaning of existence.'" (p. 132)
That is called "putting all your eggs in one basket." When the meaning of existence goes, people follow different options:
stop eating;
commit suicide;
live recklessly on a "What does anything matter now?" basis;
find another meaning.
I was told that one interpretation of Judaism was that, when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, the Covenant was ended. In practice, of course, worship of the Biblical deity continued in synagogues or churches.
Years ago in the US, a man who had been sentenced to death and who had accepted the sentence was seriously aggrieved when his execution was delayed by a debate about whether to abolish the death penalty. If I had been his counsellor/chaplain etc, then I would have tried to suggest that his former life had indeed ended on the originally proposed date of his execution and that he had now been given an opportunity to be someone else. God can be brought into such a line of reasoning if appropriate but everything depends on how the man himself perceives and understands things.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I would say, rather, as is the Christian belief, that the old covenant ended with the Passion of Christ (symbolized by the tearing of the veil in the Temple), and was succeeded by the new covenant (Christianity) at Christ's Resurrection.
Ad astra! Sean
Sure but there were different interpretations, of course.
In one of the epics that were sources for the Pentateuch, the Hebrews had reached their apotheosis in the Davidic monarchy. That was it. End of.
The Samaritans accept only the Pentateuch as canonical. Traditions are fascinating in their abilities to close or extend their scriptural canons.
The Tibetan canon = Mahayana sutras + Tantra.
The Protestant canon = the Catholic canon minus the Apocrypha.
Mormons add Mormon.
And so on. Endless.
Kaor, Paul!
But ideas about a simply worldly Messiah were not the only ones to be found in the OT. They were supplemented by things like the Suffering Servant oracles in Isaiah and the prophecies about a new covenant, as in Jeremiah.
The Sadducees of Christ's time accepted only the Pentateuch as canonical. I have a vague recollection that the Samaritan Pentateuch was so different it was rejected as heretical by the Jews. Something to look up.
The Catholic canon of the Scriptures goes back in its listing to the Decree of the Council of Rome under Pope Damasus, around 383, and was based on the LXX. Reaffirmed de fide by the Council of Trent in 1546, precisely because the early Protestants were tearing out books they did not like.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment