lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (10/02/84)
Jeff Sargent has offered the Bible as a basis for a world view. I would like to comment on the place of the Bible in my world view, and in particluar on the Book of Daniel, which I have read lately. Daniel was written around 200 BC, but is set in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, around 600 BC. This I get from the Interpreter's Bible. Before I consulted that work, I noticed that the prophecies were quite accurate as to the ensuing events, all but mentioning Alexander the Great by name. This led me to presume what the IB confirmed. This does not make the Book of Daniel a fraud or a shame. This form of retroactive prophecy was a result of a Tralfamadorian world view which minimized the importance of the sequence of events, and emphasized the importance of their thematic unity. Two cliches have their origin in Daniel, "feet of clay", and "the hand- writing on the wall". The first is from Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which he forgot and Daniel recalled, saving the collective neck of the wizard class. It was of a giant statue with a head of gold, body of brass (this may be a little off), legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay. The head is Nebuchadnezzar, the body Alexander, the legs the split kingdom after Alexander, and the feet the fragmented world of the contemporary (circa 200 BC) near east. In the dream a rock rolls off a mountain, smashes the vulnerable feet, and remains in place forever. Apocalypse now. Note that the past is at the head of the statue, and the miserable contemporary world at its feet. Anyway, this led me to read a little about ancient Babylon, much to my own enrichment. I have to think that a view that sees the Bible as some kind of cosmic dictation cannot confer the delight that I find from considering it as a human document in a human setting. In the land that our grandchildren knew ... Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew