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A Few of My Favorite Bible Verses
People sometimes ask me what my favorite verse in the Bible is. I wouldn't begin to know. Even if the choice were narrowed down to the Pentateuch (Torah), I'm not sure I could point to one verse in particular - there are so many to choose from! But I could list a few candidates.
One might be God's famous words to Abraham in Genesis 12:1, "Depart from your homeland, and your kindred, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you." I like this verse in part because of how it has been interpreted. From ancient times it was understood as reflecting Abraham's rejection of the worship of other gods in favor of the one, true God: he thus came to be thought of - in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - as the first monotheist. One ancient biblical interpreter, Philo of Alexandria, suggested that Abraham in this verse really represents every human soul in search of its Creator: the soul has to leave the familiar world of sights and sounds and enter a new, unfamiliar world. In line with this, what I have always noticed is the contrast between the very specific description of what Abraham is leaving - "your homeland, your kindred," and so forth - and the very vague description of where he is heading, "to the land that I will show you," no destination specified. That seems to be the whole point, heading off into the unknown.
Another favorite would be Joseph's words at the end of his long story (Genesis 37-45). His brothers cruelly sold him as a slave and he was taken down to Egypt where, after many adventures, he ended up as a high official, in charge of grain distribution for the whole country. His brothers then come down to buy grain and of course don't recognize him, since he is dressed like an Egyptian and speaks through an interpreter. Joseph does not reveal his true identity; instead, he puts his brothers through a series of trials that take them back and forth to Canaan and bring them to the brink of despair. At last, when they stand pleading before him, Joseph can continue the ruse no longer. He bursts out crying and says to them, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" I must have read this story a hundred times, but I still can't hear that verse and not be moved.
I'm also partial to a lot of biblical laws. Perhaps the most famous law in Leviticus (though a lot of people think its first appearance was in the New Testament) is: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). A fine sentiment - but what exactly does it mean? Some interpreters gave it the broadest interpretation: you have to share everything with your neighbor and not hold back anything for yourself. Others took it as a kind of "negative Golden Rule": don't do anything to your neighbor that you wouldn't want your neighbor to do to you (that is, you should love your neighbor as you yourself would want him to love you). And who exactly qualifies as my neighbor? The parable of the Good Samaritan says, in answer to this question: even a lowly, non-Israelite Samaritan.
By contrast, the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls community had the opposite interpretation: only members of their own community were to be loved - all other people were to be hated! (That is, "you shall love your neighbor who is like yourself," a member of your group; if he is not, forget it.) I guess this shows how important interpreters are.
There is a verse at the end of Deuteronomy I have always loved, in part because of where it is. After everything that has happened - the exodus from Egypt, the great revelation at Mount Sinai, then the wanderings in the wilderness for forty years - the people of Israel finally reach the border of the Promised Land. I suppose a reader would expect some very lofty summation at this point, something spiritual and ethereal, but what the text says is altogether down-to-earth. "Then Israel dwelt securely, alone at the fountain of Jacob, in a land of grain and wine; its heavens dripped with dew" (Deut. 33:28). Part of what I like about the verse is its mystery; even today, scholars disagree about the tense of the verb (some say "will dwell securely"), about what the "fountain of Jacob" might be (some translate "Jacob's abode"), and so forth. But most of all I appreciate the fact that it is so down-to-earth: after all the encounters with God, scaling the very heights of heaven, this is what our lives come down to: a few years of living in safety "in a land of grain and wine," aided now and then by a little dew that drips from the sky.
James Kugel is the author of "How to Read the Bible."
By James Kugel |
February 18, 2009; 3:55 PM ET
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Posted by: CCNL | February 19, 2009 11:55 PM
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Mr. Kugel,
Thank you for these delightful insights, wonderfully said.
Posted by: ParkerD1 | February 19, 2009 5:46 PM
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The following two verses from 1 Tim is something for all to think about, "This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth."
The whole bible goes together tho, remember when the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and part of it was, "They Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven", something else to think about.
God's Plan, which He has had since before creation, which is unfolding before our very eyes, will come to Fruition.
Take care, be ready.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
Posted by: ThomasBaum | February 19, 2009 5:26 PM
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Before getting too carried away about favorite biblical passages, keep in mind that those saying said passages might be now considered myths.
To wit:
From http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm
"New Torah For Modern Minds
Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.
Such startling propositions -- the product of findings by archaeologists digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years -- have gained wide acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity -- until now.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5 million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called ''Etz Hayim'' (''Tree of Life'' in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document. "
Posted by: CCNL | February 19, 2009 4:56 PM
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts Mr. Kugel.
While it is not a story, my favorite Biblical passage comes from Ephesians 5:33 "Yet I insist that among you also, each man is to love his own wife as much as he loves himself, and let a married woman see to it that she treats her husband with respect."
I believe you can apply that single verse to any marriage, Christian or not, and get an accurate barometer of the state of the marriage.
And if there ever is a story that is not told enough, it is that of the Song of Solomon. Tommy Nelson's conference on the book of Solomon should be mandatory for all Christian high school students.
Rich blessings.
Posted by: globalone | February 19, 2009 1:01 PM
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Nice words (1 and 2 Timothy) but were they from Paul? Who borrowed it from the OT scribes who borrowed bits and pieces from the ancients?
Actually, most contemporary NT exegetes believe after exhaustive research that the epistles to Timothy (and Titus) were not written by Paul but by "wannabee" Pauls. See Father Ray Brown's analyses in his 878 page book, An Introduction to the New Testament pp. 639, 654, 673,
With respect to the Lord's Prayer- great prayer but not in its original form according to those who have studied its history. http://wiki.faithfutures.org/index.php/120_The_Lords_Prayer
e.g.
"Hal Taussig
In Jesus Before God. The Prayer Life of the Historical Jesus'. (Polebridge, 1999), Taussig develops his thesis that the Lord's Prayer is a collection of several prayer lines that were significant to the early Q community. His discussion of "Forgive us our debts" occurs on pages 89-92 and represents a good example of his argument. He concludes:
Situating this sentence prayer within its social context makes clear that it arose from certain specific situations in which Jesus found himself. It did not, within the lifetime of Jesus, belong to the Lord's Prayer, which was the product of the generations after Jesus. ... after Jesus was gone his followers in Galilee formulated a general prayer in his name, combining fragments from Jesus' own prayers with other material to create an institutionalized prayer in Jesus' name. As the various versions of this Lord's Prayer from the second half of the first century were passed on, the meanings of the individual prayer sentences were generalized and taken out of context. The sentence prayer about forgiveness made a gradual transition from forgiving one another's debts to forgiveness of sins."