Posts Tagged: Matthew Richard Schlimm

“Old Testament, Old Friend”

On January 18, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

One of my earliest memories is of my mom and I sitting in an old overstuffed chair, with her reading to me.  Sometimes, I would ask for her to read the Bible.  She would then ask a counter-question: “The Old Bible, or the New Bible?”

“The Old Bible,” I would usually answer.  Mom was puzzled that a four-year-old would request a reading from the Old Testament.  She would sometimes ask, “Do you understand what I am reading to you?”  And I would answer, “Yes, momma.”

I was, of course, lying.  The truth is that I liked the pictures in her Bible.  I liked the picture of David slaying the lion and the giant.  And what’s not to like about Noah and his floating zoo, with the giraffes’ necks sticking out the window?!

I still don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament. Yes, I understand more than I did at age four for sure.  But not much.  Mainly, I understand that I don’t understand a lot about the Old Testament.  A Ph.D. has not dulled that insight into my own ignorance.  If anything, graduate studies has accentuated it. I now know more of what I don’t know.

I am currently teaching am Old Testament theology course online for my university.  One of the books I am requiring my students to read is by Matthew Richard Schlimm, This Strange and Sacred Scripture.  It is a strange book about the Strange Old Testament.

However, it is a good book and well worth reading.  I am speaking of Schlimm’s book here.  I am also talking about the Old Testament itself.

Schlimm uses an analogy for the Old Testament that I had never considered before.  The word picture that runs through his book from beginning to end is that the Old Testament is “an old friend.”

Here are some comments I made at the end of one of my Old Testament Theology student’s excellent paper.

Patrick,

Very good work!

I do not always (often?) agree with Schlimm either.  However, he does get my mental juices flowing for sure!

I think that it takes many analogies to get at a book as rich and difficult as the Bible.  One of the things that I like in particularly like about Schlimm’s analogy of the Old Testament as an old friend is that this analogy is literally (pun intentional) a more personal analogy.

Old friends have a different background and experience than I do.  That is one of the many reasons why I hang around with old friends that I don’t entirely understand.

While I don’t have a lot of old human friends, I do have a lot of old books that are my friends.  In particular—indeed in a class by itself—is the Old Testament.  How I love this old friend!  But love is one thing; understanding is another.

I hope that if I love well enough and deeply enough, I will come to a better and deeper understanding.  I see some evidence that this may be happening in my life.

Friends stick with friends through thick and thin. I hope to stick with the Old Testament until my Friend closes my eyes in death.

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