Magi at the Court of Herod - The Monday Morning Memo

Wise Men at the Court of Herod, circa 1800. This painting is notable because 9,999 of 10,000 paintings of the wise men show them following the star or presenting their gifts to baby Jesus. This is the only painting the wizard and I have ever seen that shows them at the court of Herod where they ask, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” – opening lines of Matthew chap. 2

“The problem with every sacred text is that it has human readers. Consciously or unconsciously, we interpret it to meet our own needs. There is nothing wrong with this unless we deny that we are doing it, as when someone tells me that he is not ‘interpreting’ anything but simply reporting what is right there on the page. This is worrisome, not only because he is reading a translation from the original Hebrew or Greek that has already involved a great deal of interpretation, but also because it is such a short distance between believing you possess an error-free message from God and believing that you are an error-free messenger of God. The literalists I like least are the ones who do not own a Bible. The literalists I like most are the ones who admit that they do not understand every word God has revealed in the Bible, though they still believe God has revealed it. I can respect that.

I can respect almost anyone who admits to being human while reading a divine text. After that, we can talk – about we highlight some teachings and ignore others, about how we decide which ones are historically conditioned and which ones are universally true, about who has influenced our reading of scripture and how our social location affects what we hear. The minute I believe I know the mind of God is the minute someone needs to tell me to sit down and tell me to breathe into a paper bag.”

- Barbara Brown Taylor

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