The Jamaican Man

I will never look at Bob Marley the same after learning about the Rastafari.  Before I learned about this way of life, I just thought of Bob Marley as a guy with dreadlocks and who smoked a lot of pot. But, now, I hear Bob Marley and I think of a guy who cares about the way of life he has taken, and who is passionate about the things that his homeland has gone through and how they relate the Bible to their own lives.

In the song Buffalo Soldier, at the very beginning you hear the words, “Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta,” this to me makes it known that Bob Marley is extremely proud of his way of life.

 “Stolen from Africa, brought to America. Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.”

This line makes me think of the captivity of Babylon, and how the homelands were destroyed and had to start over and had to fight for their lives to be rebuilt. Bob Marley uses it in the context to me, as being taken from Ethiopia and not wanting to leave, and fighting to get back to where they came from.

Whenever we were shown the cover for the album, “Exodus” we mentioned what we thought was interesting. I thought it was interesting how the title of the album was larger and more prominent than the artists name. That to me says that Bob Marley was more concerned about the story he was telling, than his name being known.

                        

In the song Exodus, the words, 

“Send us another brother Moses (Movement of Jah people!) From across the Red Sea!”

 Bob Marley took direct instances from the Bible and incorporated them into his music. He includes things from Christianity, and his own way of life, Jah.

Bob Marley was not just a guy who made music and smoked a lot of pot, like I originally thought. Bob Marley’s music was a way of sending out the messages of his way of life in a way that would make people want to listen. 

Dreadlocks in Religion?!

First, I find is extremely interesting that we are writing about how the village in the video participates in the system of symbols we see in our book, but the Rastas would oppose their religion as a system of symbols, and more as a way of life.

In the video, you didn’t really see it all that much, however, they mention dreadlocks. At first I never would have thought dreadlocks to be connected to be a religious symbol. In our book, it states that dreadlocks function as a mystical link between those who believe in Rastafari and Jah, or the “earth-force.”  The dreadlocks are to symbolize the doom that Babylon will eventually face. I find it interesting that there is such a religious context behind a simple hairstyle.There are many reasons why dreadlocks could have possibly came to the world, however, according the Rastafari it symbolizes their belief to naturalness. 

While, the video does not directly mention dreadlocks, they mention wrapping the dread locks in a turban, which is worn like a crown. The video recognizes the turban as a crown, and a way to develop a closer connection with the Lord, and connecting them back to the Holy land of Ethiopia. The video mentions that the turban is a distinct and ancient dressing from Ethiopia. I find it a little bit shocking that in our book it says that the HYBF grew their locks as a direct attack on the social norms concerning grooming, and that they knew people would consider them antisocial. However, from this video and the wrapping of the dreadlocks in an ancient dressing that connects back to the holy land, it seems like they were not really concerned with people connected with actual people, but more of their relationship with Jah. 

Religion is Everywhere

While reading the reading for this blog I couldn’t help but think of something religious.  The article throughout the majority made me think back to the Psalms. I say this because the message I got from the Psalms, well, throughout a large portion of the Psalms was the message of God being the almighty, and the powerful, and the helper, and anything that you needed, God would be it for you.

                “He opened his mouth in parables, and his words were sweeter than the purest honey; his whole behaviour was admirable, and his whole aspect pleasant.” (18)

The quote above stood out to me because I thought directly back to the Psalms. I thought right back to the Psalms in which they are talking about the Lord in his greatness.

It’s hard to just talk about one aspect of religion that is included throughout this reading. I’m not exactly sure if this is right, but I get the impression that this was simply their way of writing the stories of the Bible, without the title being directly known as a religious aspect.

First, the obvious religious figures. David, Solomon, Abraham, Noah, all are names that are very closely related to the Bible. Also, the reading mentions Jerusalem, which is an obvious aspect of religion.

This reading has religious aspects threading throughout the entire thing.  

                 

                “Blessed art thou, my lord, in that such wisdom and understanding have been given unto thee…” (25)

I picked this quote out because to me it represents a staple in religion. Looking to the Lord for wisdom and understanding throughout this lifetime.

This reading has multiple aspects of religion intertwined throughout, whether it be something small, or something that religion is based around. I believe that it’s kind of difficult to find something that doesn’t have even one religious aspect intertwined throughout it.

Question of reader or writer?

“The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness, makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery,” (68).

This passage stood out to me because I got the impression that Augustine is saying that even the person who fears God, turns to God in the end to help with the fear. I also enjoyed how the authors states what the holiness does for the student. It allows him to have different sources of understanding.

Another thing that stood out to me was when Augustine states that we have to consult the rule of faith, if close consideration doesn’t explain the punctuation and articulation of a passage. This was interesting to me because he went on to talk about how different punctuation throughout the scriptures can change the entire meaning of it, or at least make the message different.

Saint Augustine goes on the talk about the punctuation throughout the scriptures and how we should be reading it. However, he states that such issues that revolve around punctuation are left for the readers to resolve. He also says that the punctuation problems can also be applied to reading aloud, and that this situation, can be resolved by consulting the rules of faith or the surrounding text. It seems that he tends to put the punctuation errors and errors when interpreting the scriptures on the readers, when I think that the way the scriptures were written allows us to interpret and read them incorrectly. 

On Christian Teaching

Throughout On Christian Teaching, book two, I got the feeling that Augustine was telling the readers that in order to understand the Bible we must understand the language in which it was written, so in this instance, Latin. And if we don’t understand that language then we have to understand the background of the stories. He states on page 40, “Because a translator, unless very expert, often strays away from the author’s meaning, we should aim either to acquire knowledge of the languages from which the Latin scripture derives or to use the versions of those who keep excessively close to the literal meaning.” However, I feel like even if a story has been translated, the one that remains closest to the literal meaning could still have some striations from the original context.

Throughout the article that was assigned to us, I felt that it was telling us some of the same things but not entirely. It begins to talk about the different approaches when it comes to using the Scriptures. The first way was by creating a blueprint, then reading and using them as if they are concrete building blocks. However, this assumes that we already have prior knowledge to the larger picture the Scripture provides. The other process allows readers to use the Scripture for our own uses, and puts us in charge. People who use this way believe that the Bible is a way in which the Lord speaks to us.

With one of these approaches it states that “one cannot read the Bible without bringing some understanding to the table,” that to me is a similarity, but overall, I feel like they rarely tell us the same way to interpret and read the Bible.

I think that there are some aspects of the two different sources that are positive. For instance, in the Augustine book, I think that his point that states we need to have an understanding of the language and if we don’t then we need to know the background of the stories is a valid point. I think this because if the language doesn’t fit the story we could get an entirely different message. With the article, I think it’s a positive thing that some readers feel that they can use the Scriptures for their own use, and have control, because it allows the readers to use the Scriptures in a way that they feel is appropriate for their situations. 

Beauty in the Psalms

The Psalms of 120-134 were beautiful. I felt like they were a little bit different than what we are used to reading when it comes to the Psalms.

Specifically, I want to mention things that I read in Psalms 121.

            “I life my eyes up to the mountain, from where will my help come? My help is from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. He does not let your foot stumble. You guard does not slumber.”

The beginning of this Psalm made me reevaluate how I feel about the Psalms, because originally I felt that they were boring and simply said the same things over and over again. However, this part of the Psalms, made me realize that the things the Psalms tell us, and say have more meaning than simply telling us things about past history. Even nowadays, we are told in church whenever we need help or need a way out of a situation that we can’t seem to resolve ourselves to ask the Lord for help and it will come. We’re also told that the Lord doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle. (“He does not let your foot stumble”) and to be honest, when I would hear that I would think, “Yea, okay whatever.” But, after reading this Psalm I honestly believe that it’s true. It says that the Lord helps people when they need it, and he guides their feet in the direction that they need to be headed in.

Psalm 134 to me also meant a lot.

            “Life up your hands toward the holy place and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He Who makes heaven and earth.”

From this I get that if we allow ourselves to bless the Lord with a presence in our lives, and in our hearts then he will return the blessings from the Mountain of Zion. It all goes back to the saying, “You get out what you put in.” If you put your faith in the Lord, then he will put his faith in you, and help you when you need it, and he will show you the way to your destiny.

The Hymn of Aten and the Book of Psalms

I’m not so sure that these two versions is a result of direct borrowing. It was kind of hard to relate the two together because in the other comparisons that we have done there were words that were specifically the same throughout the two.

The first similarity between the two texts is: in the Psalm book line 2: “Wrapped in light like a cloak, stretching out heavens like a tent-cloth.” And when The Hymn to the Aten states: “You are appealing, great, sparkling, high over every land; your rays embrace the lands as far as everything you have made.” The only difference really is the amount of words it takes to get the point across. It appears that in the book of Psalms and in the Hymn to the Aten, someone is telling the Lord that the light that he creates covers everything that he has made. In the books of Psalms line 14, it says, “he makes the hay sprout for cattle, grass for the labor of humankind to bring forth bread from the earth,” seems like a chain reaction in a way. One thing leads to another that leads to another, and gives us the things we need for nourishment. In the Hymn to the Aten, it says, “in the underworld you make a Nile that you may bring it forth as you wish to feed the populance,” it says he does what he does for the betterment of the people, but only when he chooses too. While in the book of Psalms to me it says that he does what he does for the betterment of the population all the time.

They both represent the lives of Israelites to me because I believe that the book of Psalms kind of describes the things that they ended up going through over the times, and both readings send the same message. What I got from the Psalms and the Hymn to the Aten was that everything that happened was simply to benefit something else. These two are similar in the messages that they are trying to get across, but the book of Psalms is more obvious with how it perceives the message.