Old Testament

[Dragon Lady]

After reading this question I have to wonder if I'm biased, having studied the Old Testament for my major, or if the rest of the world is suffering from a lack of knowledge and just riding off the norm. Kind of like how no one likes spinach because, "Ew, it's gross and no I've never tried it. Why would I try something gross like that?"

Sure, I'll give Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy credit for being ridiculously boring and repetitive. And Isaiah a mark for "Huh?" But the rest (and there is a LOT of "the rest") is full of stories. And stories are what make scriptures easy to read. Just get used to the language and it'll be a lot easier. (Anyone who says the language is too hard to get used to, but loves reading Jane Austin is hereby discredited for hypocrisy.)

Plus, the Old Testament can be funny. Don't believe me? Go read Judges with the expectation that it is funny. Read it as though it were written to make you laugh. Still having trouble? Go take (or audit if you hate hard religion classes) the Old Testament from David Seely. Or just go visit him in his office and ask him to tell you his opinion on Judges.

Maybe I should go read the Old Testament again. Just to make sure I don't have selective memory.

[bismark]

oh man Judges 19, what a hoot!

[Dragon Lady]

Do you just have all the awkward scriptures memorized? Or how else do you find them so fast?

Ok, ok. So there are some seemingly awkward scriptures in the Old Testament. I'll admit it. But I also believe that they are all there for a purpose and can be used to teach, if only one studies the culture, history, language, etc. For example, Genesis 38? Yipes! Guess what? I wrote a paper to show the purposes behind that chapter. It's now one of my favorite chapters. But before you ask me what Judges 19 was trying to say, let me clarify that I don't have all the awkward chapters memorized, so I haven't researched them all yet. So I don't know the meaning behind that one.

Though, for the record, the question was how do I teach it? And the Old Testament Sunday School reading typically doesn't include the awkward chapters. But it does include all of the stories. How hard is it to teach David and Goliath? Noah and the Ark? Esther? Job? Sure, some are hard doctrinally. The Fall, for example. But you get hard lessons in the other books of scripture, too. I'm not saying that the Old Testament is easy, rather that it's not as ridiculously hard as some people make it out to be.

[bismark]

Cool.

I think there are two paths to take when approaching the Old Testament, sometimes they converge and sometimes they diverge: approach it from a modern Latter-day Saint perspective and approach it from an ancient Jewish/Middle Eastern perspective. Both can be quite interesting.

[Damasta]

I'd say there's a lot of "Huh?" in Ezekiel, too. More so than Isaiah.

[bobtheenchantedone]

I personally love it for all the stories. Still learning to appreciate what's in between them, though... : )

[Marduk]

Here's (as the asker of said question) my take on it. Personally, I LOVE Isaiah. It probably ranks around number 6 of my favorite parts of scripture, well behind 3 Nephi and somewhat behind the four gospels. As for the rest of it, I find two attitudes prevail. Either, "this is too complex, and they talk funny, and they have funny names for everything. I can't understand it." Or, "I know these stories. I've heard them dozens of times before. I know what they are about, and everything you're going to say. You can't teach me anything new about it." Either attitude results in closing one's mind to the spirit. I think the former is more common, but it is hard to find folks who actually come to class hungry for new information and perspective. Now, that is true for all the standard works, but I find it moreso in OT.