starting a 1 year Bible... and versions

This year some people in my small group decided to start an attempt at reading the entire Bible in one year, and I figured it was good time to finally do something I've been meaning to do for years anyway. In the process so far, I've been coming across a lot of ideas that I never would've considered or thought of the first time I read some of these books, so I guess you could say I'm starting a series of posts here to chronicle thoughts and findings along the way.

The one (or was it several?) times I tried this in the past, I was only able to get up to the point in Exodus where the laws suddenly start popping up... but I was also at an age where I figured that all of the instances in Genesis of people "sleeping together" meant that they literally slept on the same bed together, and then *poof* the wife just magically got pregnant... so I'm really getting a completely different perspective in on this run-through now. -_-

We're going through a chronological plan of the Bible (in the order the events supposedly happened) organized by the Blue Letter Bible; if you have a smartphone it's on the YouVersion Bible app. I have to admit, however, that the ordering doesn't feel entirely accurate already. The entirety of the book of Job is read before Abraham's story in Genesis, but Job has references to Rahab (who doesn't exist until Judges - although you could argue that it was inserted by the author, who existed post-Rahab) and one of Job's friends is supposedly a descendant of Abraham's grandson, Esau. Eh, whatever works, I guess.

I'm hoping that all of the years that have passed since my first attempt will have provided me better "insight" (and hearty skepticism! ish.) into reading now, but just in case, I'm doing some follow-up research on the side online and with commentary from my New Interpreter's Study Bible. Trying to keep it at mostly layman-accessible stuff. Over the past year, I've grown more interested in understanding how other traditions (my background is non-denom Protestant) have interpreted Scripture, particularly the Orthodox and Jewish faiths for historical reasons, so I'll be looking into commentary from those sides as well later on.

But anyway, for starters... the neverending Bible version debate. I randomly went on a semi-personal/research tangent with this.

- From the Protestant side: I grew up on the NIV (with memorization from the KJV sometimes) in elementary school, and I still have the copy of the NIV study Bible I used in middle school sitting with my other books right now. Since high school, though, I've been finding myself more distancing away from them for various reasons (a desire for more accuracy to the original texts and less Protestant evangelical bias/editorial agenda controversy... although most of the widely read versions I know of still fall under the mainline Protestant tradition).

For versions under the more formal equivalent (literal)-Tyndale (revisions since KJV) tradition: I recall my old apartment-mate Mark telling me that he thought the NASB was the least "blasphemous", as it does happen to be the most literal-to-the-source English one out there. Regen had the ESV on its pews, which I liked a lot and am currently using for a first pass-through before re-reading; it's a bit more readable in comparison while still being fairly literal. In Mark Study we used the NRSV, which is less literal than the previous two, and it's considered more liberal for its use of gender inclusive language and emphasis on translating based on the original historical context of the text rather than the traditional evangelical interpretation of it (the ESV was commissioned in part as a conservative reaction to it). That said, it seems to be the best version for serious academic study for being ecumenical, including Jewish, Catholic, and Orthodox representation in the people who worked on it. Not to mention, both the New Oxford Annotated and the New Interpreter's use it, and it also normally includes the Apochrypha used in the Catholic/Orthodox canon. I'm doing a second-pass/mainly commentary reading based off this one, just cause it reveals a lot of stuff in the text I would've never considered otherwise.

I haven't looked at other versions in as much depth yet, but for more recent non-Tyndale tradition translations with moderate dynamic equivalence (between literal and thought-for-thought) that aren't NIV related, both the HCSB and the NET look pretty good; the NET actually has the most abundant and in-depth translator's notes I've ever seen in a version outside of a study bible.

- From the Orthodox side, the two things that separate their versions from the other denominational translations is their reliance on the Septuagint for the OT (the Greek translation of the OT - the other versions I've listed rely predominantly on a version of the Jewish Masoretic Text, which came after. considering that the original NT authors actually quoted from the Septuagint whenever they referenced the OT and not the Hebrew, it makes more sense), and on Byzantine text-types for the NT that are currently used in the Orthodox Church itself (aside from the KJV/NKJV, the other versions I've listed rely on another text that focuses more on the generally older but less common Alexandrian text-types). For this, I'm mainly looking at the EOB, which came out recently. There's also the Orthodox Study Bible, although some Orthodox find that it has too much Protestant influence from primarily relying on the NKJV and having been worked on by people who were Protestant->Orthodox converts.

- From the Jewish perspective, it seems the most popular English translations of the Tanakh(MT) are the nJPS and Judaica Press translations. The latter comes included with commentary from Rashi, which is the most complete English translation of a Jewish commentary out there as far as I've heard.

-I'm personally not as interested in reading a Catholic Bible (for reasons better left in another post - more to do with Catholicism itself, although that may change later on), but I hear that aside from the Catholic editions of the RSV/NRSV, the NJB and NAB are largely used (the former is widely used in Europe; the latter is the most used in America for Mass readings).

More to come later.

Dream Post #48

1. Don Draper from Mad Men goes to a barber I've been thinking about checking out sometime and gets a haircut. He disapproves.

2. I'm trying to rearrange furniture on the ceiling of a living or bedroom using a crane that hasn't been calibrated properly and keeps missing the furniture I'm trying to reach. Dad meanwhile chastises me for how bad of a job I'm doing.

I haven't been remembering the dreams I've been having very well as of late... although I tend to remember nap dreams better and I haven't been taking naps much lately, I guess.

musical list update

(What started out as a single post on random subjects suddenly grew too long for one post, so I'm making several unrelated posts instead.)

I went on a musical watching/listening binge over the break, after seeing Book of Mormon live in SF (which was really good! if a bit raunchy, but I actually like raunchy humor - like Louie and Archer). It started with the TV movie version of Gypsy, the new Les Mis movie, and a live showing of The Addams Family in Irvine with the brother, but then it progressed into a bunch of Sondheim musicals: a rewatch of PBS's filmed version of Company, followed by Follies, Into the Woods, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, and A Little Night Music.

Sondheim musicals have this thing for not tending to be inherently popular or conventional like the more prevalent musicals out there- I think most of them never really turned up a profit on Broadway- but they end up being more musically and lyrically... complicated, I guess. I keep having to look up the lyrics whenever a new song comes up because I don't readily catch the meaning or some of the more clever rhymes and alliteration present in the lyrics on a first listen. Some songs or moments don't even strike me as memorable until a few listens later. But overall I end up liking each musical as a whole a lot more after revisiting it again or listening to the soundtrack right after watching it.

I actually wound up buying the Hat Box collection as a result- it contains all of the lyrics Sondheim wrote for every major musical he's worked on, including the ones whose music he didn't compose, like Gypsy and West Side Story, and the songs that didn't make it into the final work of each. I haven't read far into them yet, but one thing that struck me from the preface was his insight into how song lyrics differ from poems. It's kind of ironic to have a book that collects all of the lyrics, he says- considering that unlike poems, lyrics are meant to be sung rather than read (silently or aloud), with music, and musical lyrics in particular are meant to be sung within the context of whatever musical show they're a part of. Consequently, simpler lyrics tend to have more power than lengthy, complicated or "poetic" lyrics, as the accompanying music will generally either amplify the meaning (in the former case) or make the entire work feel clumsy (in the latter case). Reading a lyric for the first time without its context robs it of the power it would otherwise have being heard the way it's meant to be heard... but it helps to have the complete lyrics available for reference anyway.

Random aside, but I tend to think of my liking of anime music in a similar sense. I have the guilty pleasure of having a playlist of anime songs on my phone... that I probably would never play in front of anyone unless someone asked. Even to me, if I had heard the songs outside of their visual context in the show, I probably wouldn't think much of them - I actually wind up hating most full size versions of anime opening and ending songs; they sound better to me the way I originally heard them, in their shorter TV sized format. Most of my enjoyment of them is from being able to recall the visuals associated with them in my head. In the same sense, a lot of my enjoyment of listening to the soundtracks of musicals comes from being able to recall the physical scenes associated with them. It just winds up being harder to share these kinds of songs with someone who hasn't seen them in their original context, but I wind up playing them on repeat more than the normal music I listen to... although normal is up for debate anyway, haha.

If I were to rank favorite musicals now...

Seen live:
1. A Chorus Line
2. Book of Mormon
3. You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown
4. Sweeney Todd
5. Spring Awakening
6. Wicked

Seen recorded (but definitely will see live if the opportunity comes up):
1. Into the Woods
2. Follies
3. Sunday in the Park With George
4. Company
5. Les Miserables
6. Merrily We Roll Along

I realize now that I missed the chance to see the Follies revival in LA and Les Mis in SF last year, but oh well. Next time. (and also that Sondheim's dominating these rankings now. >_>)

a reminder

How easy it is for one negative thought to turn into a downpour of cynicism. All of a sudden, every little thing you see turns into a possible source of negativity, and those negative thoughts turn into anxieties that you can't get over. Things that could be taken as miscommunication turn into slights against you; slights against you turn into attacks on your character; attacks on your character turn into feelings of self pity and loathing and wondering why you couldn't be better, and any attempts to think positively otherwise just strike you as shallow and naive. All those little activities you took on to busy yourself and make do with time become meaningless, because you were just doing them to forget about everything that's wrong with your life, to get by.

And of course, you know that what you're thinking is wrong; you just can't see why that is because your mind is so clouded with all of this bullshit. You forget the lessons you thought you had already learned in the spur of the moment, and you end up doing something rash that you regret later or just repeat the same mistakes, the same motions you've been making over and over and over again.

You forget how much you've been blessed. How lucky you are to have what you have right now, to have someone you can talk to. How quickly you take such a common thing for granted... you realize after seeing what happens to a person who hasn't even that.

Just remember that you are beloved. And there's nothing shallow or naive about that.

on social anxiety

I don't think I've ever felt more lonely than in the presence of other people.

That's to say, if worrying about what other people were doing or how my life might look to other people weren't an issue, then I would feel perfectly fine being alone (and in the presence of people) a lot more often. Most of the time I feel relieved when I get the chance to finally be alone for once. Or at least, not noticed... which is part of the reason why I feel the subconscious desire to hide whenever I see someone I recognize in public.

But it's there. That pressure to conform to social standards. I feel uncomfortable in the presence of other people a lot (at parties, at a club, and so on) because I get reminded of how out of touch I feel with the lifestyles of other people. How different it is to be a guy that dislikes small talk, isn't interested in following sports, prefers not to drink as much, finds interest in a lot of random things that no one else knows about, and doesn't have a significant other (and then get pressured by everyone to get one already...). I feel tempted to think that if I could only change at least one of those things, then fitting in would be so much easier.

But it's never that simple. You can't just change who you are like that... especially when you really don't want to change to begin with. 

And then there's the stupid little things you do to make up for it. Latch on to the closest legitimate excuse you can find for why you seem to not be enjoying yourself, in order to make others worry as little as possible. [A headache from either sleeping too much or not sleeping enough; finding yourself unable to talk to anyone because you had one drink too many (of two drinks); getting food poisoning last night and still feeling queasy today. All of which, while being true, aren't really able to mask the fact that even if these excuses didn't exist, I wouldn't be acting that much different. Although I guess I would be trying a little harder to socialize otherwise.] Stare at the television screen because that's what a good chunk of people happen to be staring at, only you're not paying attention to whatever's playing because it takes too much energy to try and pay attention to something you aren't that interested in. Play with your phone only to realize that nothing on it really interests you on it right now and you're just fumbling with the screens to pass time. Watch other people because they're pretty entertaining... only if people noticed that you were watching them they'd think it was creepy. >_>

And on the other side of things, there's that internal voice that wonders how things got this way. Whether something is just fundamentally wrong with you mentally. 

It's strange to think that there was a time in elementary school when I wasn't friends with anyone in my class, and I felt perfectly fine being that way. Life was so much simpler without having to worry about how other people perceived you. But it's something you have to figure out how to deal with eventually anyway.

Heavy Rain

Lately I've been getting more into watching games (particularly let's plays from the Let's Play Archive - I love this site) rather than playing them... or more specifically watching games that I usually wouldn't play anyway but still find interesting enough to watch. I finished a LP of Heavy Rain [PS3] last night - which isn't so much of a game so much as it is a long interactive movie, so it winds up being more entertaining to watch anyway.

The premise is basically that it follows four characters each searching separately for the identity of a child serial killer known as the Origami Killer, and it plays out like watching a psychological thriller movie except that you control whether or not the characters succeed in finding the killer through quick-time-events and exploration and whatnot (and I'm not really a fan of quicktime events, hence I'm watching instead). The game was critically acclaimed when it came out, but in light of rather pretentious statements the director has made, not to mention the poor scene direction, the voice acting, and the writing in the game, it's gotten quite a bit of a backlash from the online community. I remember Harrison telling me awhile back not to bother playing it, although to be honest, it's quite entertaining to watch the game while it's being made fun of, cause there's a lot of ridiculous things about it.

Random things that stood out to me while watching:

- The game makes you play through a lot of mundane real life scenes... almost like The Sims, except you have to actually control your character to make them do things like pee (holy crap how many scenes are there of someone peeing in this game), tie a man's tie, and at one point, change a baby's diaper. Evidently, everyday life is more complicated to handle in a video game than it looks.

- Every time the Origami Killer murders a victim, it's by trapping them under a grate and making them drown under 4 days of heavy rain, if no one is able to find the victim (and hence the title). Realistically though, a serial killer who can only kill based off the whims of the weather? How often do you get 4 consecutive days of rain consistently enough to drown a person anyway? And how does the killer drain the grate for reuse? o_o

- The psychiatrist in this game refers to dissociative identity disorder as schizophrenia multiple times. THEY AREN'T THE SAME THING. Ugh.

- The one female lead character (Madison) kind of contributes to the whole argument about women being marginalized in video games, considering that it seems like she's the only one constantly getting trapped in rooms and assaulted by a stream of manically laughing male sexist serial killer psychopaths (the taxidermist, the doctor, the club owner, the origami killer, rapist ninjas- I mean imaginary apartment burglars. no seriously, you have to play through a pointless dream sequence involving them in her intro).

Madison also gets a scene where the player has to help her make herself look slutty and then dance provocatively in front of the club owner in order to get information from him. And then she ends up stripping in front of him... that is, if the player isn't smart enough to have her knock him out with a lamp in time. These scenes just play out like they're enacting some weird creepy fetish of the game director.

- Not to mention, if the player makes the wrong choices, then Madison ends up exemplifying the stereotype of the incompetent female.

*Madison finds Ethan with cuts and bruises after escaping a car crash*

Madison: Here, take this. It'll help bring down the fever.

Ethan: ...but I'm not running a fever.

*minutes later*

Madison: Here, take this. It'll do you some good. It's an antibiotic.

Ethan: An antibiotic? I'm no doctor, but I don't think there's any risk of infection with a broken rib.

*in a later scene. Ethan screams*

Madison: Sorry, I'm stupid, I'm using anti-burn ointment on your cuts!

-__-

- Failing quicktime events is actually kind of amusing. The best part of this fail clip is the live chickens at the end.

fear of becoming irrelevent

When you don't share much in common with your peers, have nothing to say to them, or just can't fit in. and it stirs up that fear that perhaps something is wrong with you.

I feel like part of the reason I stick/stuck around Christian community is because it didn't seem as hard to fit in compared to other communities I could've found. But of course, that wasn't really the case. I just take a long time to adapt to people in general. I can barely think of anyone that I've hit things off with right away - all of the people I'm closer to, I'd known for a while before really... knowing them well.

Now that I think about it, I remember saying something along these lines in a previous post on this blog. Oh, back in... 2007. Funny how things don't change much.

Ironically, I feel inclined to not want to hang out with large groups of people who have the same interests as me too much. One on one's are okay, but more than that and it starts to feel too homogenized. Or I guess I hate getting lumped with categories of people, even though there is some basis for it.