The Problem with Interpretation

Today in my Birth of Christianity class, we were discussing who had "ownership" of the scripture in the ancient Hebrew Bible - the Jews or the Christians? Touchy subject, to be sure. Debate grew in the classroom. Some admitted that they were the Jewish people's writings first, and so must be theirs. Others suggested that they became the Christians' as the Christians used and reinterpreted them. I, now known as the class heretic, offered something outside of the box.

The way I see it, they were both the Jewish people's scriptures and the Christians, and at the same time, neither of theirs. Each group laid claim to them (and later, Muslims), and so they each have ownership to their own interpretations, but the only one who knows the actual meaning of the scriptures would be the author - or authors. My professor assumed that I was making a religious argument, that I was looking at this from a theological perspective. I would suggest that he was, not I.

image found on Thumb Press

What I meant is that only the one who writes something, the author, actually knows what meaning s/he intended. My professor assumed I was referring to "God" as the author; rather I was trying to be completely objective, so I was including God (possibly) and the actual human instruments (if indeed they were instruments
). I was trying to look at this problem academically, including all possibilities. For example, whoever wrote the Book of Job had a reason for writing it down. Because we do not have an explicit explanation from the author as to why s/he wrote it down and what it meant, we are left to conjecture and interpretation, which is done with our own personal understandings (bias). The same goes for every other piece of Scripture.

I'll give an example as to how the interpretation that we find may have nothing to do with the meaning of the writing that the author intended. I submit a poem of my own:

The Vanishing

It creeps in

at night

during your sleeping rest.

It strolls

through the corridors

in and out

of rooms.

The paths it takes

are none

to be seen.

It caresses your

thoughts

as shadows disappear.

It steals your

valuable

possessions of time.

It has no

regret

of all damage it causes,

and no

punishment

can it be given,

since its

silence

is that of no virtue,

no seizure,

no hope.

I know what I wrote about. I know the meaning I intended. My challenge to you is to come up with what you believe it is about - your interpretation - and write it below in the comments. I have a link that I will post in response to your comment that will reveal my intended meaning. The challenge is to see if your interpretation is right or wrong when compared to my intended meaning.The goal I seek is whether or not I am right or wrong in my thinking about this. 


I look forward to your comments and interpretations!

Theodicy and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

The movie Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) shows a world that many can familiarize with: a world that allows for seemingly unjustified suffering and reward. Cliff, one of the main characters of the story, notices this aspect of life and points it out to his niece while divulging his words of wisdom to her, “you’ll find as you go through life that great depth and smoldering sensuality does not always win.” He tells her this after relating to her how he is in love with Halley, but she is enamored with Lester, a man that he finds revolting and undeserving of his wealth and fame. Cliff seems to be a pessimistic man and that he has learned his lessons from having experienced life first hand. Ecclesiastes 1:18 perhaps explains his attitude on life, “because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.”

Cliff also tells his niece about how although the world is unfair and good people like Ben, the rabbi, suffer without reason, it is good people like Ben that don’t seem to let the world come down on them. Ben doesn’t let on that he is suffering, rather he has a good attitude towards life and Cliff considers him to be a “mensch” – a man of integrity.

Ben is reminiscent of Job from the Bible. Ben, like Job, is a God-fearing man that is struck with a seemingly undeserved affliction that is causing him to go blind. We don’t know from the film whether or not Ben laments the way Job does, “Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me, and why the breasts, that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, but we are given a sense that he does not” (Job 3:11-13), but we are given the sense that he does not. Rather than lament, Ben seems to have the “patience of Job” that is discussed in Journey on page 184. He seems to grasp the overarching meaning of Job, that humankind is not “at the center on the cosmic stage” (Journey, 188).

Two men in the film carry the theme of unjustified reward, Judah and Lester. Cliff is obvious in his distaste for Lester. He finds Lester to be an arrogant womanizer that is undeserving of his wealth and fame. Lester seems oblivious of his nature and goes through life as if he is happy and always celebrating. Perhaps he has an outlook on life that can be taken from Ecclesiastes 8:15, “So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.” At the end of the film, Judah seems to take on the same outlook, as he seems to have gotten away with having his mistress, Deloris, killed. Nothing particularly bad had come to him from her death. Another man was punished for the crime, but Judah didn’t feel this was a problem as that man had committed several other crimes of a similar nature and, “what was one more” (Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989).

Judah didn’t always have this attitude though, and it is possible that although he seems to feel that he has gotten away with the crime; his increase in drinking perhaps shows that he still feels guilty and expects to be punished yet. It is as if he knows that “God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14) and is waiting for that axe to fall. Even the fact that he seemingly confesses to Cliff, while giving him a plot for a movie, shows that he is still disturbed and in wonderment of the fact that he has so far gotten away with the murder. Judah would have been wise to follow the words from Ecclesiastes 1:10-19:

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you,

Do not consent.

¹¹ If they say, “Come with us,

Let us lie in wait for blood,

Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

¹² Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,

Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

¹³ We will find all kinds of precious wealth,

We will fill our houses with spoil;

¹⁴ Throw in your lot ^[c]with us,

We shall all have one purse,”

¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them.

Keep your feet from their path,

¹⁶ For their feet run to evil

And they hasten to shed blood.

¹⁷ Indeed, it is ^[d]useless to spread the baited net

In the sight of any ^[e]bird;

¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood;

They ambush their own lives.

¹⁹ So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;

It takes away the life of its possessors.

Perhaps if he had, his conscience would at least be clear and he would not be ever waiting for that axe
to fall.

                All in all, the messages from the movie seem to accumulate to a common theme that seems expressed best in Ecclesiastes 9:2-3, “It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.  This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”

Written on 11/8/11 for my Intro to Biblical Literature class

Crimes & Misdemeanors

I must blame my Introduction to Biblical Literature Professor for the fact that I now own a Woody Allen Movies, "Crimes and Misdemeanors". We had to watch the film in relation to what we were learning about Biblical literature in class. The following "thought piece" was preparation for a further essay on the film. (Essay to follow in the next post). 

In the scene from “Crimes and Misdemeanors” where Cliff is walking with his niece while eating pizza, Cliff seems to wonder about how life is simply not fair. He agonizes over his love for Haley, who is being pursued by Lester, a man that Cliff finds to be shallow, yet is famous, rich, and successful. He explains to his niece that she’ll “find as {she} goes through life that great depth and smoldering sensuality does not always win.” He’s sorry to have to tell her this “truth of life” or words of wisdom. He then goes on to talk about the Rabbi, Ben, who although he is a wonderful guy (and obviously a man of faith) he is poor in that he is going blind, yet he has a great attitude about life. He calls Ben a mensch, which is a person of integrity and honor.

This scene is reminiscent of the message in Ecclesiastes 8 – 9 that talks about how life is meaningless on earth, “There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 8:14) Further, Cliff’s wonderment at how this irony could occur is discussed in Ecclesiastes 8:16-17, “When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night. Then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.” Although Cliff seems to be wise, he can still not comprehend the reality of life. 
Originally written on 11/1/11 for my Intro to Biblical Literature class