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The So-Called Biblical Notion of Husband and Wife

Henry Imler March 18th, 2008

A comment by Hank on The Way I need Jesus got me thinking. Is there such a thing as a “biblical notion of husband and wife?” What notion are we talking about? Pre-Israel marriage? We gonna pattern it after the marriages in Genesis? Ancient Israel? 2nd Kings? Isn’t that what got us good US citizens up in arms against the Mormons a hundred or so years ago (poly-what?)? Are we gonna talk about the Jewish ideas of what marriage is in the time of Jesus? Are we gonna talk about marriage as it was practiced by the Romans (i.e. baby factories = wives)? Are we going to talk about those writing in the name of Paul when they are giving advice on how to be a couple of equality under the yoke of the empire?

The more I look at actual marriages in the Bible the less I am enamored with the monolithic notion of the so-called “biblical notion of husband and wife.” We need to realize that marriages in our Holy Scriptures are described (not prescribed) in different structures with different power realationships between the parties involved.

We see in the myth of Genesis 3 the consequences of the fall in marriages - women and men will try to dominate each other. This arragement (both women looking to dominate their husbands and husband dominating their wives) is unnatural; God teaches us this in Genesis and He confirms it in the writings of Paul.

It gives me great pleasure to see people attempt to justify our culture’s (or rather the 1950’s) version of marriage where one party dominates the other.

With the coming of the Kingdom of God, we must work to restore the equality inherent in the “two becoming one flesh” by means of our practice and our teachings. What we need to do is rediscover the the pre-fall power relations between husband and wife and make those relations real in our lives. It is up to us to enact the Kingdom of God on Earth - now.

Read it in the News

Henry Imler March 14th, 2008

Scored another desk today.

Desk Prank Album Link

There is one guy left to prank and I know what I would like to do to his desk. He is an American with Irish heritage - the kind that never lets you forget that he has Irish heritage and freaks out if you conflate Ireland and Scotland… so I am thinking of putting a lot of Scottish themed things labeled as Irish things on his desk However, he won’t shut up about how he is going to get be back soooo bad that it will take most of the day to put everything back together. Two things I wanna say here. First, everything I have done would take a person about 10 minutes to fix (or I waited around and helped them get the stuff back together quickly), so I don’t think he gets this manner of etiquette and that is frustrating. Secondly, while I have something in the initial stages, I might just not do anything. That would be funny because he could never have his revenge that he keeps talking about.

Bible Meme

Henry Imler March 12th, 2008

You can tell I am intelectually (and mentally, and physically) exausted when I only post quizzes and memes:

1. What translation of the Bible do you like best?
Depends on what I am doing. For personal use, I like the NLT because I am a vernacularist. When it comes to indepth academic study, I go with the NRSV and the NASB.

2. Old or New Testament?
While the correct answer is both, in reality, I go with the New Testament. I am a Christian and not a pre-rabbinic Jew, so the NT gets the nod when I am asked.

3. Favorite Book of the Bible?
Romans, hands down… and Genesis and John.

4. Favorite Chapter?
John 3

5. Favorite Verse?
Romans 8:1

6. Bible character you think you’re most like?
Depends on who you ask - I am sure some ’round here and other parts would liken me to those pesky prophets of Baal. But, self identification? Lamech, because when I have lived 182 years I want to become the father of a tike named Noah. That, or I am skirting the question because I don’t like throwing myself onto those people.

7. One thing from the Bible that confuses you?
Paul and the Law - What gives?

8. Moses or Paul?
Paul, all the way.

9. A teaching from the Bible that you struggle with or don’t get?
The stuff that the people writing in Paul’s name tell women to do.

10. Coolest name in the Bible?
Not in the Bible, but the coolest renaming of anyone in the Bible is God himself, when certain Gnostics equate the OT God with the demiurge and name him Yaldabaoth. I know he becomes the evil creator of matter and is holding all of us back and that we need to gets that knowledge, but I still want to name one of my children after him.

The Belief-O-Matic

Henry Imler March 12th, 2008

This morning I went to an interesting, although poorly executed, Belief Net meet and greet breakfast put on by the Center on Religion and the Professions here at Mizzou. Afterwards I checked out Belief Net and found their quizes section. I took the Belief-O-Matic out for a spin, with interesting results:

1. Orthodox Quaker (100%)
2. Eastern Orthodox (95%)
3. Roman Catholic (95%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (91%)
5. Seventh Day Adventist (87%)
6. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (85%) How I self-identify

Orthodox Quaker?!?! I think my answer to the non-violence and social action questions rose OQ to the top of my list.

Song of the Day

Henry Imler March 6th, 2008

This is an old Christian song that I just love.

Let it Go by the Newsboys.

…this bitterness you hide
it seeps into your soul
and it steals your joy
’til it’s all you know
let it go
will you forgive?
will you forget?
will you live what you know?
He left his rights
will you leave yours?
you won’t understand it
let it go
will you forgive?
will you forget?
will you live what you know?
beneath the cross
you hear His words,
Father, forgive them,
and you know
you can’t understand it
let it go…

Damn thats hard to do - but I think well worth it.

Returning Debt.

Henry Imler March 6th, 2008

When I woke up this morning I owed some people 3,150 dollars.

By 1pm, I owed them nothing.

I returned to the library the 18 books for which I was being charged $175 each to replace.

I checked half of them back out.

This is a Test

Henry Imler March 5th, 2008

Faith lived out.

H/T: Scott Parsons.

A Call for a Mr. Dawkins

Henry Imler March 4th, 2008

This one comes from my good friend LaRue:

And then I was like, “Mr. Dawkins, the 1950s called; they want their logical positivism back.” And he was like, “You worship leprechauns.”

The Price of Books

Henry Imler March 3rd, 2008

My, oh my, are the price of books shooting through the roof. Check out this nice mailing from the Mizzou Library I received Saturday (sent via first class mail, o’course):

You can see the amount the School paid for the book in the upper right-hand corner of the book itself. Compare that with the price they wanna charge me for it - all because it is a month late. Somehow the book’s mere association with the MU Library causes its value to increase 39 -fold.

What you don’t see is the other 22 books for which I am being charged. I’ll have to go find those books and turn them in soon.

Vader Cake

Henry Imler March 3rd, 2008

This weekend was all board games and thesis. Friday night, after playing basketball and hitting up Flatbranch with the other TAs, I invited them over for Guitar Hero and board games. Much fun ensued. Taboo, Sequence, Ticket to Ride and Guitar Hero - how can one go wrong?

Vader CakeSaturday night, my good friend Jake turned twenty eight and had a few people over for board games. Check out the awesome candle on that cake!

I had one of my best showing in Ticket to Ride and was able to beat Jake, who used up all of his trains and did not waste one of them in achieving the longest track. I also received great pleasure in beating the crap out of Andy in Ticket. He was black (the Mormon express) and I was red (look for me in the upper left-hand corner). The two previous times I had played him I had scored less than he had, a point in which he reveled greatly.

Oh yeah, thesis. I spent from 10AM till 7:30PM on it Saturday and from 2-10pm on it Sunday. I now have about 33 pages, but after I came to that length, I decided to rework the project some. I am dropping The Gospel of Thomas and the The Book of Thomas the Contender from my analysis and only focusing on the social world of The Acts of Thomas. ARG.

Cheating with Starbucks

Henry Imler March 1st, 2008

Every single time I grab a Starbucks drink (grande mocha nonfat, not whip, please) I feel as though I am cheating. I know it is bad for my belt, bad for my wallet, bad for my breath, and according to some, bad for the growers, and bad for America (something about all successful businesses being intrinsically evil was how it was explained to me…somehow).

But ooohhhhh how good it is in the morning. Sometimes it feels sooooo good to be bad. And who knows, maybe I am not being so bad after all.

You must not hate; you must try to finish.

Henry Imler February 25th, 2008

“I don’t like the world… It’s not pretty. I won’t draw it pretty.”… “No, no. You must not dislike God’s world, Even if it is unfinished.” … “I hate the world…” … “”You must not hate, you must not hate. You must try to finish.” - Asher Lev and his mother Rivkeh

That brought me to tears tonight. It is from the book, My Name is Asher Lev. I am only 30 or so pages in, but the book has been so moving that I went ahead and bought a used copy of it (right now I borrowing a copy from a friend).

Zone

Henry Imler February 25th, 2008

What is the number one thing you need to do when playing against a 2-3 zone defense?

You attack the holes and kick out; you keep the ball moving and when holes develop, exploit them.

My teammates could not seem to understand this today. For them, the best way to play against a zone defense was to allow one person to guard 2-3 people because of poor spacing on our part and to never, ever attack the holes. Of the utmost importance was to have one guy standing around at the top of the key showcasing his fancy dribbling skills the whole while neglecting all manner of picks and would-be rolls while everyone else worked hard at getting open. It was a bit frustrating.

Help with Waterdeep

Henry Imler February 10th, 2008

Tonight as I was listening to the best rendition of a Christmas song of all time (The Barenaked Ladies’ version of Come Ye Merry Gentlemen), the band Waterdeep struck my mind. I remember really digging some of their stuff back in 2000, but then getting turned off my their indie-poser followers and sometimes pretentious music (then again, most of this exposure of their fan-base came from the Christian sub-culture at Lindenwood and the people at Central Christian). I can’t, for the life of me, remember what that stuff was of theirs that I liked. I remember both really liking and hating their stuff - but oh, did I like their good stuff.

Does anyone remember some of their good stuff? I don’t want to go out and buy their craptastic tunes.

Retribution!

Henry Imler January 18th, 2008

So, after messing around with people’s desks last week, I knew retribution was in the works. A couple of days ago, I walk into my office to this:

The person featured in the photos is a new professor who is notorious for ignoring the graduate students. This bugs me, because I try to be as courteous as I can to all new people, and people just get the cold shoulder back there. So, out of spite, I hung up her photo on my wall.

When I saw the my desk, I laughed for 10 minutes. Then I kept finding little pictures everywhere, on my fan, in my drawers, just for example. Oh, it was funny.

The great Desk Pranks of 2008

Henry Imler January 16th, 2008


Darren’s Desk


Courtney’s desk,
the Feminist scholar.


Emily’s desk.

OK, I am an Imler and have been in an empty office working for almost a month. I can’t go that long without messing with someone’s stuff. I might have messed with some of my friend’s desks…. maybe…

I wanted to go with something funny, but not something that prevented anyone from actually working. Say, like spilling 100 cheap ballpoint pins on someone’s desk and then hot-gluing them all down in a random pattern (that would have been great!). Also, no physical harm was to come to the desk owner, such as hot-gluing a set mouse-tap upside down on a desk’s middle drawer. As such, I made sure I was there when Emily came in today to help her move her desk area back.

I tried to pay attention to detail. If you go to the gallery of this, you will note that I took the time to turn all of Darren’s wall hangings and food items upside down and that all of Emily’s postcards and comics have been reversed to the point of them being on the opposite side of the wall.

All of the owners of the desks to the right have been in the office. They all took the gag very well. As a matter of fact, I even helped rearrange Emily’s desk space a few times today.

I still have a couple of desks to go. I don’t want to reveal anything more on here on the off chance that one of the remaining read this. I don’t wanna spoil the fun. The last two involve more work, and I might wait until the semester actually starts to play the prank.

A Possible Postmodern Configuration of Christianity

Henry Imler January 9th, 2008

I am still working through the reason why I believe. I talked earlier about how modernist conceptions are not adequate for judging the merits of a particular religion because we don’t have access to the data needed to verify the claims of religion. In the second installment, I try to talk about another way of viewing this problem, from the postmodern perspective.

Theology for the Masses :: What is Postmodernity?

I basically claim that it is possible (and I think more profitable) to engage the world through a postmodern framework while remaining true to the tenants of Christianity. The post is explorational for me, over there I am kinda feeling my way around - if you decide to read it and have any insights or problems with what I am saying, please let me know in the comments.

The next post in the series will deal with the topic of narratives, why they are important and how they interact.

The Basis for Belief Part 1

Henry Imler December 25th, 2007

A while ago, I was asked why exactly I believe. I have been pondering this the last few days and I think I can give a semi-intelligible answer.

I have posted the first part over at Theology for the Masses. I have moved the comments over there as well, in the interests of fostering a larger conversation.

Theology for the Masses :: The Basis for Belief Part 1

Nightly Observations

Henry Imler November 29th, 2007

— Saw the first rip off of Christmas songs to sell commodities - and then I promptly became sick to my stomach.

— Saw an AMAZING Celtics/Knicks game. 104-59 and through most of the 2nd half the Celtics had the Knick’s score doubled.

— TNT needs to mix up their commercials. I have seen the MJ/OverActorTMHanes commercial about 342 times in three hours. Does anyone notice that the Hanes commercials all kinda make MJ look like a jerk?

— It was good to get some exercise - played basketball for an hour with some random cats at the Rec Center - worked out next to guys that curl me (always fun) - and then capped it off with a nice run.

— The Garnett/Craig Sager interview after the Celtics/Knicks game was priceless. Not only did Sager ask Garnett if the Knicks had quit as a team on Isiah Thomas (he said yes), but Garnett also called Sager out on his wardrobe choice. Garnett basically ridiculed the man on national TV and Sager just took it. Sager’s wardrobe is so bad, there is even an NBA Basketball blog named after his choice of suits: “Donning Craig Sager’s Suit - breaking down the nba like craig sager’s suits: colorfully”

X; where X ROCKS!

Henry Imler November 29th, 2007

Today
has been a good day so far. My 8AM section went well. It was the last section of the year for this class. I teach my other section for the last time tomorrow. After Greek I hung out with Travis. As dorky as this sounds, we had a pleasant time talking about Hume, Kant and the pros and cons of ways of looking at the cross. He actually agreed with me about the need to view the cross both as a relational restoration
and as a penal substitution. I went back to the office for a bit, talked with the other TAs about some office developments, such as changes in staff and the next semester’s TA assignments.

At about 11:30, I headed out for the day. When I got home, I played one round of Halo 3. I kicked but. Was the team leader in kills on the winning team (check out the stats). I never do that well. Just ask Jake, Grant, Q, Hank, or Andy - they will tell you. After that round, I picked up the house, did the dishes, and made myself lunch.

Then I responded to a few emails (although not all) that I was needing to catch up on and made a spectacular purchase on Amazon.com.

All solid purchases, I think. You know what, for the first time in along time, I spent my allowance on books instead of video games. I guess, I did buy come comic trades last month, but this time I bought an actual book with only words.

I still have a couple of things to do:

  • Do my Greek translations.
  • Memorize the different ways the perfect and pluperfect passive/middles can be conjugated in Greek
  • Get to the gym for the first time in a long while
  • Finish grading (7 papers) and enter in grades

The best part of the day is there is no big projects hanging over my head!

Oh and this weekend should be fun as well. Meredith and I have a clothes-folding-date while watching the “Razor” the 2 hour, made for TV Battlestar Galactica movie tomorrow. Saturday we are going to the Nutcracker. Should make for a fun weekend.

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