Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 30-31, Song of Songs 1-3 and Augustine's Treatise on the Profit of Believing 2

1 Samuel 30 – Upon returning to the town given to him by the Philistines, Ziglag, David learns that the Amalekites have attacked and burned it, taking the people off as captives.  David and his men weep—he has also had his own wives taken—but the people are also angry with David for having left the town without proper defense. “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (30:6).

David has Abiathar bring him the ephod and he seeks the advice of the Lord. He is told to pursue the Amalekites, and he does with some of his men.  Some stay behind; they are exhausted. They come across an Egyptian, a servant of one of the Amalekites, and David inquires of him and he agrees to show David where the raiding party is encamped. When they arrive, the Amalekites are celebrating their raid. David attacks and kills all but 400.  He recovers everything they took and also captures their flocks and herds.

        

They return and when they get to the men who stayed behind out of exhaustion, some in David’s party, “the corrupt and worthless” one, think they should not share in the spoil. But David dissents: “. . .the share of the one who goes down into the battle shall be the same as the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike” (30:24). This is the rule Israel adopts from this time on.  David even sends some of the spoil to the elders of Judah—to patch things up there.

1 Samuel 31 – The Philistines and Israelites fight near Mt. Gilboa. The Philistines overtake Saul and his sons.  They kill Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua.  Saul is wounded.  He asks his armor bearer to kill him, but he won’t do it.  So Saul falls on his own sword.  The Israelites in the region leave and towns and flee the Philistines.

        

The next day when the Philistines find Saul and his sons, they cut off Saul’s head and strip off his armor. They place the armor in the temple of Astarte and fasten his body to the wall of Beth-shan.  The inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead hear of it, they go and retrieve the bodies of Saul and his sons; they burn them at Jabesh, bury their bones there and fast for seven days.

Song of Songs - Introduction: Jewish tradition holds these books to be an allegorical song of God’s love for the children of Israel. Wikipedia says it is “perhaps the most important Biblical text for the Kabbalah,” a Jewish mystical group. Christians viewed it as a way of representing the relationship of Christ with his church or as an allegory of the soul’s relationship with God and Christ.

        

Authorship of the book was attributed to Solomon. The Jerusalem Bible introduction says the vocabulary and style indicate a post-exilic origin.

Song of Songs 1 – It opens with songs of both “Bride” and “Bridegroom.” The Bride says, “Your love is more delightful than wine: delicate is the fragrance of your perfume. . .We shall praise your love above wine; how right it is to love you (1:1-4).

She says she is “black but lovely” . . . “it is the sun that has burnt me” (1:5-6).  Her “mother’s sons” – the Chaldaeans – have turned their anger on her and made her [the people of Israel] do “forced labor” in their vineyard. She wishes she had only looked to her own. “Tell me then, you whom my heart loves: Where will you lead your flock to graze. . .” (1:7) so that she will no longer wander like a vagabond.

Then a “Chorus” chimes in and tells her to follow the tracks of the flock and stay close to the “shepherds’ tents” (1:8).

The Bridegroom [I wonder who He is?] says he compares Israel – the Bride – to the mare harnessed to Pharaoh’s chariot. He says he shall make her “golden earrings and beads of silver” (1:11).

The dialogue between them is beautiful: “How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves” (1:15).

Song of Songs 2 – “I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. As a lily among the thistles, so is my love among the maidens. As an apple tree among the trees of the orchard, so is my Beloved among the young men. In his longed-for shade I am seated and his fruit is sweet to my taste” (2:1-4).

This is a time of restoration and reunion with the greatest love there is – the love of God for his people. “My Beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my love, my lovely one, come. For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land” (2:10-12).

“My Beloved is mine and I am his” (2:16).

Song of Songs 3 – The feeling of loss and uncertainty – “On my bed, at night, I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. So I will rise and . . . I will seek him whom my heart loves” (3:1-2).

For the Israelites, this means, when he is found, he is brought into the Holy of Holies – in the old Temple.

The Third Poem is about the Exiles returning home, the “litter of Solomon” (3:7).

Augustine (354-439)

On the Profit or Benefit of Believing

2 - It is then my purpose to prove to you, if I can, that the Manichees profanely and rashly inveigh against those, who, following the authority of the Catholic Faith, before that they are able to gaze upon that Truth, which the pure mind beholds, are by believing forearmed, and prepared for God Who is about to give them light. For you know, Honoratus, that for no other reason we fell in with such men, than because they used to say, that, apart from all terror of authority, by pure and simple reason, they would lead within to God, and set free from all error those who were willing to be their hearers. For what else constrained me, during nearly nine years, spurning the religion which had been set in me from a child by my parents, to be a follower and diligent hearer of those men, save that they said that we are alarmed by superstition, and are commanded to have faith before reason, but that they urge no one to have faith, without having first discussed and made clear the truth?

Wish there was a modern translation of this work. The length of the sentence makes it difficult to understand the basic subject and verb. They are so interspersed with background ideas. What I think he is saying here is that the Manichees claim that they approach religion without the authority-driven, superstitious and anti-rational approach that the “Catholic” (universal) Church had. They claimed to start by appealing to reason. This was the thing about them that drew Augustine to them.

Who would not be enticed by such promises, especially the mind of a young man desirous of the truth, and further a proud and talkative mind by discussions of certain learned men in the school? Such as they then found me, disdainful forsooth as of old wives' fables, and desirous to grasp and drink in, what they promised, the open and pure Truth?

But what reason, on the other hand, recalled me, not to be altogether joined to them, so that I continued in that rank which they call of Hearers, so that I resigned not the hope and business of this world; save that I noticed that they also are rather eloquent and full in refutation of others, than abide firm and sure in proof of what is their own. But of myself what shall I say, who was already a Catholic Christian? Teats which now, after very long thirst, I almost exhausted and dry, have returned to with all greediness, and with deeper weeping and groaning have shaken together and wrung them out more deeply, that so there might flow what might be enough to refresh me affected as I was, and to bring back hope of life and safety.

What then shall I say of myself? You, not yet a Christian, who, through encouragement from me, execrating them greatly as you did, were hardly led to believe that you ought to listen to them and make trial of them, by what else, I pray you, were you delighted, call to mind, I entreat you, save by a certain great presumption and promise of reasons? But because they disputed long and much with very great copiousness and vehemence concerning the errors of unlearned men, a thing which I learned too late at length to be most easy for any moderately educated man; if even of their own they implanted in us any thing, we thought that we were obliged to retain it, insomuch as there fell not in our way other things, wherein to acquiesce. So they did in our case what crafty fowlers are wont to do, who set branches smeared with bird-lime beside water to deceive thirsty birds. For they fill up and cover anyhow the other waters which are around, or fright them from them by alarming devices, that they may fall into their snares, not through choice, but want.

So he begins his treatise by saying that he was drawn into the “snares” of the Manichees by their assertions that the Church he was raised in did not satisfy “reason,” but relied on “superstition” and “authority” [probably their assertion of apostolic continuity. He and his friend Honoratus were drawn to the Manichaean interpretation of the gospel.

The Treatise is devoted to exploring not the doctrines of the church so much as the nature of and the value of “believing.”

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 28-29, Proverbs 31 and Augustine's Treatise on the Profit of Believing 1

1 Samuel 28 – When the Philistines muster to fight Israel, Achish makes it clear that David will have to join them in battle against his own people; he makes David his bodyguard. 

Samuel has died and all Israel mourns for him. “And Saul had banned from the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead (28:3).

Saul and his army are encamped at Gilboa; the Philistines are at Shumen.  Saul seeks guidance from the Lord, but the Lord is totally silent—in every form of seeking, “but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets” (28:6). So while Saul had done a good thing and ridded the land of mediums and wizards, now in his desperation, he listens to the advice of his servants and goes to consult the medium at Endor. 

He disguises himself and goes with two other men at night.  He asks her to consult the spirit of a man who has died – Samuel (28:8).  She thinks Saul is laying a trap for her since he has previously set himself against witchcraft, but Saul reassures her.  She asks whom he wants to consult and Saul asks for Samuel.

        

“’An old man. . .wrapped in a robe’” is conjured out of the ground and Saul says, “’God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; so I have summoned you to tell me what I should do’” (28:15). Samuel reminds Saul that the Lord is simply doing what he said he would do: “ The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites. What’s more, the Lord will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow, and you and your sons will be here with me” (28:18-19). No wonder Saul suffers from paranoia.

        

Saul is full of fear.  The woman, seeing he is hungry, offers him some bread, but he refuses at first.  He is finally convinced to eat, and she slaughters a calf and feeds him and his servants.

1 Samuel 29 – The Philistines muster at Aphek, the Israelites at Jezreel. Some of the Philistine commanders challenge David’s presence among them, albeit in their rear; but the king stands by David.  At the insistence of his commanders, Achish tells David to go back, and he does.

This story really has abandoned all humanly based rationality. The Philistines are Israel’s greatest enemy at this time. The king named by Samuel is trying hard to be faithful – abandoning wizards, mobilizing to defeat an enemy that is attacking his people – the chosen people. David is fighting on the side of the enemy, or has indicated his willingness to do this. Sometimes the Lord’s path is complicated and not easy to make compatible with human understanding.

Proverbs 31 – The Sayings of King Lemuel (Ishmael’s tribe of Northern Arabia): They focus on the harm women and wine can do to kings but the comfort they can give to the distressed.

This is followed by a poem on the perfect wife. Some of the attributes celebrated are the following:

“Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life” (31:11).

She works with eager hands and prepares the food of the house.

“She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard worker. She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night” (31:16-18). Sounds like real work to me.

“Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber” (31:19).

She “holds out her hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy” (31:20).

“She is clothed in strength and dignity” (31:25).

“When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household” (31:26-27).

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised” (31:30).

Augustine (354-439)

On the Profit or Benefit of Believing

Augustine probably wrote this treatise around 390 AD. He is writing it for a man Honoratus, a dear friend, who was at this time still loyal to the Manichaeans and had probably been recruited to them by Augustine himself. He is now trying to convince him that he should abandon their dualistic “take” on Christianity.

Manichaeism was a “gnostic” religion founded by Mani, a man of Persian ancestry who came from the area of what is now Iraq. The religion was rigidly dualistic, seeing life as being a dire struggle between spirituality and materiality. Between the 3^rd to the 7^th centuries, it spread throughout the Roman world and as far East as China. It was the main rival of “Catholic Christianity” during this time. Mani apparently declared himself to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, but had a different understanding of Jesus – but the material aspects of Jesus’ life were thought to be illusions: his suffering and death especially.

Augustine, though raised by a Christian mother, was drawn to Manichaeism, but converted back to his orthodox roots in 387, five years after Emperor Theodosius I declared that proponents of the religion should suffer death and four years before Catholic Christianity was declared the formal religion of the Roman Empire (391 AD).

Manichaeism would be an undercurrent and influential throughout the broad area from Europe to China for nearly a thousand years.

I confess that I am reading through this treatise for the first time. It attracted my attention by the spirit in which it seemed to be written. I will be reading it through for the first time day to day, so that is a little hair-raising sometimes. Augustine was a master of rhetoric. He learned it as a child and became a teacher of rhetoric before his years as a Christian leader. So his sentences can be very complex, his reasoning very analytical and sometimes difficult to follow. Still, I like the tone and demeanor he adopts here – he loves the person he is trying to convince. He once embraced the ideas he is now criticizing. I like that.

1 - If, Honoratus, a heretic, and a man trusting heretics seemed to me one and the same, I should judge it my duty to remain silent both in tongue and pen in this matter. But now, whereas there is a very great difference between these two: forasmuch as he, in my opinion, is an heretic, who, for the sake of some temporal advantage, and chiefly for the sake of his own glory and pre-eminence, either gives birth to, or follows, false and new opinions; but he, who trusts men of this kind, is a man deceived by a certain imagination of truth and piety.

This being the case, I have not thought it my duty to be silent towards you, as to my opinions on the finding and retaining of truth: with great love of which, as you know, we have burned from our very earliest youth: but it is a thing far removed from the minds of vain men, who, having too far advanced and fallen into these corporeal things, think that there is nothing else than what they perceive by those five well-known reporters of the body; and what impressions and images they have received from these, they carry over with themselves, even when they essay to withdraw from the senses; and by the deadly and most deceitful rule of these think that they measure most rightly the unspeakable recesses of truth. Nothing is more easy, my dearest friend, than for one not only to say, but also to think, that he has found out the truth; but how difficult it is in reality, you will perceive, I trust, from this letter of mine. And that this may profit you, or at any rate may in no way harm you, and also all, into whose hands it shall chance to come, I have both prayed, and do pray, unto God; and I hope that it will be so, forasmuch as I am fully conscious that I have undertaken to write it, in a pious and friendly spirit, not as aiming at vain reputation, or trifling display.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 26-27, Proverbs 30 and Augustine's Confessions 31

1 Samuel 26 – The Ziphites come and report David’s whereabouts to Saul.  Saul takes his usual 3000 men to go hunt for him. 

When he learns of the expedition, David sends out spies to find Saul. Ahimelech, the Hittite and Abishai, son of Zeruiah, go with David to Saul'’s camp by night and find Saul asleep with a spear stuck in the ground next to his head. Abishai thinks David should kill him, that God has given him into his hand once again.  But David asks, “who can raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?” (26:9)

So they take the spear and a water jar and leave.  When he is far away on top of a hill, he calls to the army and specifically to Abner to abuse him for not watching carefully over Saul.  Saul recognizes David’s voice and again calls out in an affectionate tone.  Again David asks him why he continues to pursue him, what guilt does he have. Saul, in his most vacillating way, acknowledges his craziness: “I have done wrong; come back, my son David, for I will never harm you again, because my life was precious in your sight today; I have been a fool, and have made a great mistake” (26:21). David returns the spear.  He simply expresses the hope that God will favor him for the good turn he has done to Saul in sparing him (26:24).

1 Samuel 27 – David despairs of ever escaping Saul’s wrath and runs away to the land of the Philistines, to king Achish of Gath.  When Saul learns this, he stops hunting for him.  David gets Achish to give him one of the Philistine towns to live in—Ziglag, and David remains for a year and four months.

        

They raid the Geshurites, the Girzites and Amalekites, leaving much death and destruction in their tracks.  Achish is pleased for he thinks it means that David will never find any favor (allies) in his lands.

Proverbs 30 – Called the sayings of Agur (no identity confirmed in the note):

“Who has gone up to heaven and come down again. Who has cupped the wind in his hands? Who has bound up the waters in a cloak – who has marked out all the ends of the earth? What is his name, what is his son’s name if you know it?” (30:4).

“[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, ‘Yahweh—who is Yahweh?’ or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God” (30:8-9).

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

31 - But yet, O Lord, to you, most excellent and most good, Thou Architect and Governor of the universe, thanks had been due unto you, our God, even had you willed that I should not survive my boyhood. For I existed even then; I lived, and felt, and was solicitous about my own well-being—a trace of that most mysterious unity from whence I had my being; I kept watch by my inner sense over the wholeness of my senses, and in these insignificant pursuits, and also in my thoughts on things insignificant, I learned to take pleasure in truth. I was averse to being deceived, I had a vigorous memory, was provided with the power of speech, was softened by friendship, shunned sorrow, meanness, ignorance. In such a being what was not wonderful and praiseworthy? But all these are gifts of my God; I did not give them to myself; and they are good, and all these constitute myself. Good, then, is He that made me, and He is my God; and before Him will I rejoice exceedingly for every good gift which, as a boy, I had. For in this lay my sin, that not in Him, but in His creatures — myself and the rest — I sought for pleasures, honors, and truths, falling thereby into sorrows, troubles, and errors. Thanks be to you, my joy, my pride, my confidence, my God— thanks be to you for your gifts; but preserve them to me. For thus will you preserve me; and those things which you have given me shall be developed and perfected, and I myself shall be with you, for from you is my being.

We lived (Augustine and I) thousands of years separated in time, in culture, in class, in gender, in relative importance. But his honest retelling of how he grew up and came to see the gifts God had given him as part of a different order, that the things of this world – the competitions, ambitions, sources of pride, competitions for leadership and power, are all insignificant when set against the goals God gives us to aspire to – faithfulness, honesty, integrity, kindness, mindfulness of Him. It is in these things we find our delight and our rest.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 25, Proverbs 28-29 and Augustine's Confessions 30

1 Samuel 25 – Samuel dies and all Israel mourns his passing. 

David, still in the wilderness of Paran, sends 10 young men of his to a rich man, Nabal, who lives in Carmel.  He and his men have been providing protection to Nabal’s flocks and shepherds for a while. Nabal was “surly and mean,” but his wife, Abigail, was “clever and beautiful” (25:3). The men ask Nabal to provide food for David and his men.  Nabal says, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters” (25:10).

A Jerusalem Bible note says that the shearing of sheep was a festive occasion on which the sheep owner was expected to display generosity.  David takes advantage to demand a sum that nomads typically levied on nearby villages in return for ‘protection’—abstaining from pillage and keeping other marauders away.  This was called the ‘law of brotherhood’. That’s why David’s messengers address Nabal as brother in 25:6.

When David hears of Nabal’s lack of generosity, he goes after him with 400 men. 200 are left to watch their baggage. One of Nabal’s men tells Abigail of her husband’s rebuff to David and of the generally good service his men have given them.  So Abigail takes 200 loaves and some wine, five sheep and other food and loads it on donkeys to give to David and his men.  She meets David and begs him to disregard the insult her husband has offered. 

She addresses him as one who has knowledge of the promises the Lord has made concerning him and says, “When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief, or pangs of conscience, for having shed blood without cause or for having saved himself” (25:30-31).

        

David thanks God for having sent Abigail out to him, for having “kept [him] from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand!” (25:34) He accepts her offering and sends her off in peace.  The next morning, when Abigail tells Nabal of what she did, “his heart died within him; he became like a stone” (25:37). Ten days later, he dies.

When David hears of it, he sends and woos Abigail, to make her his wife.  She accepts.  David also marries Ahinoam of Jezreel during this time.  His wife Michal, back with her father, has been given to Palti, son of Laish.

Proverbs 28 – Selections:

“When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability” (28:2).

“He who conceals his faults will not prosper, he who confesses and renounces them will find mercy.” (28:13)

“In the end, people appreciate honest criticism far more than flattery” (28:23).

Proverbs 29 – Selections:

“The king who judges the poor with equity sees his throne set firm for ever.” (29:14)

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

30 - These were the customs in the midst of which I, unhappy boy, was cast, and on that arena it was that I was more fearful of perpetrating a barbarism than, having done so, of envying those who had not. These things I declare and confess unto you, my God, for which I was applauded by them whom I then thought it my whole duty to please, for I did not perceive the gulf of infamy wherein I was cast away from your eyes. For in your eyes what was more infamous than I was already, displeasing even those like myself, deceiving with innumerable lies both tutor, and masters, and parents, from love of play, a desire to see frivolous spectacles, and a stage-stuck restlessness, to imitate them? Pilferings I committed from my parents' cellar and table, either enslaved by gluttony, or that I might have something to give to boys who sold me their play, who, though they sold it, liked it as well as I In this play, likewise, I often sought dishonest victories, I myself being conquered by the vain desire of pre-eminence. And what could I so little endure, or, if I detected it, censured I so violently, as the very things I did to others, and, when myself detected I was censured, preferred rather to quarrel than to yield? Is this the innocence of childhood? Nay, Lord, nay, Lord; I entreat your mercy, O my God. For these same sins, as we grow older, are transferred from governors and masters, from nuts, and balls, and sparrows, to magistrates and kings, to gold, and lands, and slaves, just as the rod is succeeded by more severe chastisements. It was, then, the stature of childhood that you, O our King, approved of as an emblem of humility when you said: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 23-24, Proverbs 26-27 and Augustine's Confessions 29

1 Samuel 23 – David is instructed by the Lord to go help the people of Keilah against the Philistines. He does and is successful. Saul learns of it and thinks the gates of Keilah could be a useful trap for catching David. David uses the ephod Abiathar managed to bring out of Nob to find out from the Lord that Saul is indeed coming to Keilah after him, and that the men of the town will surrender him if he stays.  So David and his (now) 600 men leave and wander here and there, in the wilderness of Ziph.  Saul learns that David has left and gives up the expedition.

        

Jonathan comes out to meet David at Horesh.  They renew their covenant and Jonathan predicts David’s ultimate victory.  People of the region go to Saul and tell him of David’s presence.  They offer to surrender him into Saul’s custody and he blesses them.  He sends them back to find out exactly where David is. David is in the Arabah, south of Jeshimon when he learns Saul is after him again.  He goes into the wilderness of Maon where Saul pursues until a messenger comes and tells Saul that the Philistines have raided the land.  He returns to deal with them.  David goes to the strongholds of En-gedi.

1 Samuel 24 – After dealing with the Philistines, Saul returns to the pursuit of David.  He goes with 3,000 men to the wilderness of En-gedi, in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats it says. 

Saul comes to a cave near the road and goes in “to relieve himself” (24:3). Now David and his men are in the cave when Saul came in, and his men think the Lord has given him into their hands. David cuts a corner of Saul’s cloak off as if to demonstrate how into his hands the Lord has put him, but then becomes conscience stricken: “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for his is the Lord’s anointed” (24:6). He scolds his men and Saul is permitted to leave the cave unharmed.

After he leaves, David follows him and calls out to him, bowing to do obeisance before Saul.  He tries to prove to Saul that he has nothing to fear from him.  He shows him the piece he cut from his cloak: “I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life.  May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you” (24:12).

        

Saul responds to David’s voice with such pitiful affection: “’Is this your voice, my son David?’ Saul lifted up his voice and wept.  He said to David, ‘You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil . . .For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.  Now I know that you shall surely be king, and the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand’” (24:16-19). He gets David to swear that he will not cut off his (Saul’s) descendants. Here, I think, we see the roots of Jesus’ admonition to love our enemies, be good to those who despitefully use us. David leaves the judgment of Saul up to God and God alone.

Proverbs 26 – Here are some more:

“Honor is no more associated with fools than snow with summer or rain with harvest” (26:1).

“Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are. Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation” (26:4-5). Hmm!

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool reverts to his folly” (26:11).

“There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise” (26:12).

 “No wood, and the fire goes out; no talebearer, and quarrelling dies down” (26:20).

“If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. IF you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead” (26:27).

Proverbs 27 – Selections:

“Do not boast about tomorrow, since you do not know what today will bring forth” (27:1).

“Better open reproof than voiceless love” (27:5).

“As no two faces are ever alike, unlike, too, are the hearts of men.” (27:19)

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

29 - Behold, O Lord God, and behold patiently, as You are wont to do, how diligently the sons of men observe the conventional rules of letters and syllables, received from those who spoke prior to them, and yet neglect the eternal rules of everlasting salvation received from you, insomuch that he who practices or teaches the hereditary rules of pronunciation, if, contrary to grammatical usage, he should say, without aspirating the first letter, a “uman” being, will offend men more than if, in opposition to your commandments, he, a human being, were to hate a human being. As if, indeed, any man should feel that an enemy could be more destructive to him than that hatred with which he is excited against him, or that he could destroy more utterly him whom he persecutes than he destroys his own soul by his enmity. And of a truth, there is no science of letters more innate than the writing of conscience— that he is doing unto another what he himself would not suffer. How mysterious are you, who in silence "dwellest on high," [Isaiah 33:5] Thou God, the only great, who by an unwearied law dealest out the punishment of blindness to illicit desires! When a man seeking for the reputation of eloquence stands before a human judge while a thronging multitude surrounds him, inveighs against his enemy with the most fierce hatred, he takes most vigilant heed that his tongue slips not into grammatical error, but takes no heed lest through the fury of his spirit he cut off a man from his fellow-men.

The precise “art” that Augustine continues to lambaste in this treatise is “rhetoric,” the art or skill praised and taught by the sophists from the 5^th century BC on in Athens, Greece general and then later throughout the Roman Empire. Sophists believed that it was the most important thing a person could learn, and it isn’t really very surprising that it should have originated in the first “democratic” society. While it wasn’t democratic in the way we are today; there were many slaves. But if you were a grown man and a citizen in Athens, you basically passed all the laws and ran the city, decided if you went to war, etc. The number of people entitled to vote probably surpassed 30,000 to 40,000. Of course not all of them cared about voting, but it isn’t surprising that this was the city where Sophistry originated and thrived. If you wanted to have your voice count in the huge debates that went on in the outdoor amphitheater where they met, you basically HAD to have rhetorical skills. Sophists came under fire from philosophers for caring more HOW they spoke and HOW PERSUASIVE they were with language than with the “TRUTHS” they articulated, but democracy needs skillful rhetoricians who care about the truth. Augustine apparently had rhetorical skills “beaten into him” literally, and he is terribly critical of the void in value-content (real truth) that he saw in the school.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 21-22, Proverbs 25 and Augustine's Confessions 28

1 Samuel 21 – David goes to Nob, to the high priest Ahimelech.  He pretends the king has sent him on a secret mission, that no one must know where he is or what he is doing.  He asks Ahimelech for bread, but the priest says he has none—only “holy bread.”  He can give it to David and the men who are with him if they “have kept themselves from women” (21:4). David assures him that they have, so the priest gives them the holy bread—“Bread of the Presence”—which is removed each evening. Fresh bread is placed there in its place.

        

It happens that one Doeg, chief of Saul’s shepherds, is there when David comes. He will later play a role in uncovering David’s whereabouts to Saul, so he is mentioned here in passing.

        

David tells Ahimelech he left so quickly on the king’s errand that he brought no sword; he asks Ahimelech if he has one. The only one there is Goliath’s sword, which has been kept there, wrapped in a cloth.  So David takes it and leaves—to go to King Achish of Gath [a Philistine city-state], where he pretends to be mad. “He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard” (21:13). King Achish is the Philistine king – or one of two Philistine kings that ruled at this time – and remember that David killed the Philistine warrior Goliath and is carrying his sword when he goes to the king, fleeing from Saul. He plays insane so he won’t be recognized and killed.

1 Samuel 22 – David escapes to a cave in Adullam [lying half-way between Gath and Bethlehem] , where his family comes down to him along with others who are debtors or discontented in some way.  He becomes “captain” of a rogue band of 400 men.  He asks the king of Moab [East of the Dead Sea] to let his parents stay with him for a while to keep them safe.  After a while, a prophet (Gad) tells David he should leave this safe place, this “stronghold” and go to Judah, into the forest of Hereth.

        

Meanwhile Saul, very paranoid—maybe not unreasonably so—about the collusion between David and his own son, berates his servants for not warning him about Jonathan’s closeness to David, for not feeling sorry for him.  Doeg, then, the one who had been in Nob with the priest Ahimelech, reveals to Saul that he saw David there, saw Ahimelech give him Goliath’s sword, etc. Saul then sends for the priest and all his “father’s house” to inquire why he helped David.  Ahimelech thinks David is the most faithful of all to Saul.  He does not know he is Saul’s enemy.  Saul tells his servants to kill Ahimelech and all his family, but they “[will] not raise their hand to attack the priests of the Lord” (22:17). But Doeg, the Edomite, does.  He kills 85 of the priestly household that day, and then puts the whole city of Nob to the sword—men, women and children as well as animals. 

Only one son of the priestly family escapes—Abiathar.  He goes to David and tells him what has happened. David responds that he knew that Doeg would tell Saul and that he feels himself responsible for the deaths of all of them (22:22). David invites Abiathar to stay with him.

Proverbs 25 – A second collection attributed to Solomon but transcribed by King Hezekiah – they focus on those seeds of wisdom that help a king to rule well:

“No one can comprehend the height of heaven, the depth of the earth, or all that goes on in the king’s mind. Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith. Remove the wicked from the king’s court, and his reign will be made secure by justice” (25:3-5).

“Don’t demand an audience with the king or push for a place among the great. It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table than to be sent away in public disgrace” (25:6-7). These verses are used by Christ in his parable in Luke 14:7 – claim no honors – better to be asked to come closer to the king.

“When arguing with your neighbor, don’t betray another person’s secret. Others may accuse you of gossip, and you will never regain your good reputation” (25:9-10).

“Clouds and gusts and yet no rain, such is the man whose promises are princely but never kept” (25:14).

“With patience a judge may be cajoled: a soft tongue breaks bones” (25:15).

“Telling lies about other is as harmful as hitting them with an ex, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow” (25:18).

“If your enemies are hungry, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the Lord will reward you” (25:21-22).

“A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls” (25:28).

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

28 - But what matter of surprise is it that I was thus carried towards vanity, and went forth from you, O my God, when men were proposed to me to imitate, who, should they in relating any acts of theirs— not in themselves evil— be guilty of a barbarism or solecism, when censured for it became confounded; but when they made a full and ornate oration, in well-chosen words, concerning their own licentiousness, and were applauded for it, they boasted? You see this, O Lord, and keepest silence, "long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth," as you are. Will you keep silence forever? And even now you draw out of this vast deep the soul that seeks you and thirsts after your delights, whose "heart said unto you," I have sought your face, "Your face, Lord, will I seek." For I was far from your face, through my darkened [Romans 1:21] affections. For it is not by our feet, nor by change of place, that we either turn from you or return to you. Or, indeed, did that younger son look out for horses, or chariots, or ships, or fly away with visible wings, or journey by the motion of his limbs, that he might, in a far country, prodigally waste all that you gave him when he set out? A kind Father when you gave, and kinder still when he returned destitute! [Luke 15:11-32] So, then, in wanton, that is to say, in darkened affections, lies distance from your face.

We are all of us able to identify with that “prodigal son” Augustine makes reference to in this paragraph. We all to some extent take the blessed inheritance we are meant to have and waste it on silly and self-serving trinkets: worldly goals, vanities, shallow ideas, ambitions and human rewards. And it is when we honestly measure the emptiness of these things against the profound purposefulness we want our lives to have in the end that we find ourselves on the road home, fretting about how our Father will receive us.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 20, Proverbs 24 and Augustine's Confessions 27

1 Samuel 20 – David flees again, back to Jonathan wondering what it is he has done to earn the hatred of Saul. Jonathan assures him that his father never does anything without telling him (Jonathan) and that he will protect David. 

David worries about the fact that Saul knows of Jonathan’s affection for him—they have sworn to a “covenant” in 1 Samuel 18:3 based on “the bond” of love that existed between them. “Jonathan [had] sealed the pact by taking of his robe and giving it to David, together with his tunic, sword, bow, and belt” (1 Samuel 18:4).

David now asks Jonathan to try to plumb his father’s intentions.  Saul will be having a banquet that David will be expected to be at.  He will not be there and hopes Jonathan will let him know if Saul is angry or not at his absence.  Jonathan will let David know how he responds by a signal he sets up: if he sends a boy to fetch his arrows before where David is, then everything is fine.  If he sends him past where David is waiting, then it means David must run for his life. He, Jonathan, says, “May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.  If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the Lord; but if I die, never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the Lord were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.’ Thus Jonathan makes a covenant with the house of David. . .” (20:14-16). This covenant will later be a huge factor in how David deal’s with Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth.

        

The first day, Saul does not show anger at David’s absence, but the next day after his anger is kindled (20:30).  He gets into an argument with Jonathan.  He tries to tell Jonathan he will never be king if David lives.  Jonathan keeps telling his father that David has done no wrong and Saul finally throws his spear at his own son.  Jonathan too is full of anger (20:34) and grieves for David.

        

The next day Jonathan goes out into the field and gives the appropriate sign to David.  They have a moment to themselves before David leaves—weeping and promising faithfulness forever.

Proverbs 24 – Here are a few good words:

“By wisdom a house is built, by discernment the foundation is laid; by knowledge its storerooms filled with riches of every kind, rare and desirable” (24:3-4).

“Better the wise man than the strong, the man with knowledge than the brawny fellow; for war is won by sound thinking and victory rests in having many counselors” (24:5-6).

“Do not be indifferent when men suffer injustice. If you say, ‘I do not know this man!’ does not he who tests hearts perceive it?” (24:10-11)

“Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult lest the Lord see it and be displeased . . .” (24:17).

“To show partiality in judgment is not good. The man who says, ‘You are innocent’ to the guilty; the peoples will have only curses for him, and the nations horror” (24:24).

“By the idler’s field I was passing, by the vineyard of a man who had no sense, there it all lay, deep in thorns, entirely overgrown with nettles, and its stone wall broken down. And as I gazed I pondered, I drew this lesson from the sight, ‘A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to take life more easily, and like a vagrant, poverty is at your elbow and, like a beggar, want’” (24:30-34).

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

27 - Bear with me, my God, while I speak a little of those talents you have bestowed upon me, and on what follies I wasted them. For a lesson sufficiently disquieting to my soul was given me, in hope of praise, and fear of shame or stripes, to speak the words of Juno [Roman for the Greek goddess Hera], as she raged and sorrowed that she could not

    Latium bar

    From all approaches of the Dardan king,

which I had heard Juno never uttered. Yet were we compelled to stray in the footsteps of these poetic fictions, and to turn that into prose, which the poet had said in verse. And his speaking was most applauded in whom, according to the reputation of the persons delineated, the passions of anger and sorrow were most strikingly reproduced, and clothed in the most suitable language. But what is it to me, O my true Life, my God, that my declaiming was applauded above that of many who were my contemporaries and fellow-students? Behold, is not all this smoke and wind? Was there nothing else, too, on which I could exercise my wit and tongue? Your praise, Lord, Your praises might have supported the tendrils of my heart by your Scriptures; so had it not been dragged away by these empty trifles, a shameful prey of the fowls of the air. For there is more than one way in which men sacrifice to the fallen angels.

The smoke and wind of worldly learning. Augustine is very tough on himself and critical of the whole Roman educational system. I tried and failed to find the meaning or context of the quote he includes here, which apparently he not only needed to repeat but say with due emotion and “convincement” that he accepted its truth and importance. The more convincingly he recited and immersed himself in their importance, the better he was thought to be.

While I have a difficult time latching onto the weight he gives to the offensive content of what he was forced to learn, I see what he is saying about the fact that we do not as children and young people have much if anything to say about what we are asked to learn, the values and beliefs we are made to embrace. These things are forced upon us by our tribe, our time, our cultural context. You wonder what he would think of the teaching techniques of the Catholic schools that so many go through today and rebel against as antithetical to spiritual truth.

There is a time growing up when you are not in control of what you must learn and embrace, but at some point reflection and the inner guide’s voice kicks in. For me this happened when I was about 8. I began to look up into the sky at night and bring my woes and my questions there, and I began to feel a guide within me comment without words on what was happening around me. And I felt in that moment connected to a teacher that I could rely on.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 1 Samuel 19, Proverbs 23 and Augustine's Confessions 26

1 Samuel 19 – Saul speaks to his son Jonathan about his desire to kill David, but Jonathan of course warns David. The next day, Jonathan speaks to his father about David.  He reminds Saul of the many services David has performed from him and tries to tell him it will be a very great sin if he harms him without cause.” Saul heeds the voice of Jonathan” (19:6), for the time at least. These stories of Saul’s vacillating relationship with David seem so real to me, so reflective of what has to have been a serious mental illness in the king. He is amenable to reason sometimes, but then the paranoia comes over him and he becomes lethal.

But later, the same evil spirit comes upon Saul, and in an unexpected moment, he tries to “pin David to the wall with the spear” he has in his hand (19:10). David flees. 

His wife Michal warns him that night that he will be killed in the morning if he does not run away. He does, and Michal takes an idol and makes it up to be human size and human looking (19:13).  Saul realizes that Michal has tried to fool him. She tells him that David threatened to kill her if she didn’t help him by trying to deceive Saul’s men.

David flees to Ramah where Samuel lives.  Saul sends messengers after him to get him.  They encounter David and Samuel with a group of prophets in a state of frenzy (20:20).  The messengers too fall into the frenzy.  The same thing happens with another set of messengers; so finally Saul goes down himself and he too falls into a prophetic frenzy (20:23). He strips off his clothes and lays naked all day and all night.

Proverbs 23 – Pretty much the same here:

“Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle” (23:4-5).

“Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge. Don’t fail to discipline your children” (23:12-13).

“O my son, give me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following my ways” (23:26)

”Who has anguish? Who has sorrow? Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks” (23:29-30).

Augustine (354-439)

Confessions

26 - And yet, you stream of hell [the educational system of the day, that forces these god-stories into children’s minds], into you are cast the sons of men, with rewards for learning these things; and much is made of it when this is going on in the forum in the sight of laws which grant a salary over and above the rewards. And you beat against your rocks and roarest, saying, "Hence words are learned; hence eloquence is to be attained, most necessary to persuade people to your way of thinking, and to unfold your opinions." So, in truth, we should never have understood these words, "golden shower," "bosom," "intrigue," "highest heavens," and other words written in the same place, unless Terence had introduced a good-for-nothing youth upon the stage, setting up Jove [Zeus] as his example of lewdness:—

    Viewing a picture, where the tale was drawn,

    Of Jove's descending in a golden shower

    To Danaë's bosom . . . with a woman to intrigue.

    And see how he excites himself to lust, as if by celestial

          authority, when he says:—

    Great Jove,

    Who shakes the highest heavens with his thunder,

    And I, poor mortal man, not do the same!

    I did it, and with all my heart I did it.

Not one whit more easily are the words learned for this vileness, but by their means is the vileness perpetrated with more confidence. I do not blame the words, they being, as it were, choice and precious vessels, but the wine of error, which was drunk in them to us by inebriated teachers; and unless we drank, we were beaten, without liberty of appeal to any sober judge. And yet, O my God—in whose presence I can now with security recall this—did I, unhappy one, learn these things willingly, and with delight, and for this was I called a boy of good promise.

You cannot really understand Augustine without some knowledge of the myths he was being forced to learn and regard as sources of knowledge of life’s deepest mysteries. The whole story of Danae can be checked out in brief at this site: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977031557.

Danae was the daughter of a king who heard from the Delphic oracle that he would never have a son, but his grandson would kill him. So he tries to lock his daughter up so she won’t meet anyone and want to marry. The god Zeus called the “promiscuous father of the gods” is the only one who can get to her, but he does and she has a son – Perseus.

These stories were part of the fundamentals of Roman education. Terence was a Roman author in Northern Africa in the 2^nd century. When Augustine was a boy, Terence’s plays would have been part of the curriculum.