Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden, Pittsburgh

The Rodef Shalom Congregation has a Biblical Botanical Garden next to it. Rabbi Walter Jacob and his wife Irene started the garden in 1987. They planned for the congregation to work together on the garden as equals, so creating fellowship and community. The plan included bringing some of the Biblical realities from the past to us in the present.

A sign leading the way

Irene and Walter Jacob

Our first stop was their representation of the Dead Sea, the end of a stream that winds through the garden from their Lake Galilee. 

Dead Sea area

Looking up to the River Jordan

The euonymus compacta celastraceae represents the Burning Bush that Moses saw when he received his commission to return to Egypt and lead the Chosen People out of bondage. Behind it and to the right is hosta liliaceae, representing the River Nile.

Burning bush

On the path is a pergola overrun with grape vines. Grapes are a common fruit and used for making wine. Noah was said to be the first to have a vineyard and to make wine. The pergola provides very nice shade.

Grapes

Coming out of the vine-covered pergola

An herb garden represents many plants of the Holy Land, including poppies and almonds. This part of the garden is recommended for quiet meditation.

Plants of the Middle East

Chamomile and mustard were both used as folk medicines in Biblical times. 

Medical garden?

At the highest point of the garden is their Sea of Galilee, featuring fresh water pumped in and some fish swimming around. The waterfall makes a pleasant sound to add atmosphere to the soothing surroundings.

Sea of Galilee

The desert and its vegetation played a big part in the passage from Egypt to the Promised Land. A rock garden presents a desert-like environment. 

The rock garden

The whole garden is not very big but is a relaxing (and free) place to visit near the universities of Pittsburgh.

Book Review: The Great Story of Israel by Robert Barron

The Great Story of Israel: Election, Freedom, Holiness by Robert Barron

In a theological overview of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible, Bishop Robert Barron discusses the role in salvation history played by humanity in general and of the Israelites in particular. The texts under consideration are fairly straightforward, recounting the history of the Jewish nation. Barron acknowledges a lot of modern scholarship that has made understanding these writings more clear while avoiding the pitfalls that modern scholarship also opens up. The writing styles used are often more poetic or allegorical, even in these historical texts. People did not think of writing a long list of facts, dates, and names; they told a story with a definite purpose in mind. Teasing out the proper meaning can be challenging but not impossible. Barron also looks at the texts through the lens of Christianity, since these texts are the anticipation of the moment of reconciliation between humanity and God that happens in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One of Barron's main theses is that the Jewish people are chosen by God but not just for themselves to be saved. They are to be an example to the rest of mankind, a people set apart to show the right relationship between human beings and God. This example is seen with their struggles in Egypt during Exodus and Babylon during the Babylonian exile. The Jews are a model of right faith attached to the true God, the One who is greater than all other gods because He's in a completely different category. As Creator of all things, no subordinate thing is even remotely close to God in power, majesty, and care for humans. The Jews were a shining example of this in the ancient world.

They were not, however, a perfect example. Often they would draw back or turn away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The consequences were dire. Even after the long string of miracles that led the Chosen People out of Egypt, soon enough in the desert between Pharaoh's land and the Promised Land they would complain about their current circumstances or switch to a golden calf to credit their salvation. Once established as a kingdom in the Promised Land, they often switched devotion to the local gods, often the deities that came with marrying local pagan women rather than Israelites. Punishment would soon follow, but so would prophets whose main job was not to foretell the future, but to get the Israelites back on track. The final cultural conflict before Christ was the Greco-Roman world coming in and taking over the Promised Land, chronicled in the two books of the Maccabees. 

Barron has a good way of explaining theological and philosophical concepts clearly without relying on a lot of technical language or very abstract ideas. He can bring those concepts down to concrete examples that help the reader understand. The book moves along swiftly, not dwelling on every last detail, covering the few thousand years in three hundred pages. Using Christianity as a guiding principle helps to narrow down the focus and put the writings in their larger salvific context. The book makes a great overview, either introducing new readers or providing insights to more seasoned readers of the Old Testament. 

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Psalms 51-150 ed. Q. Wesselschmidt

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament VIII: Psalms 51-150 edited by Quentin F. Wesselschmidt

This commentary provides a lot of quotes from early Christian authors who reference the last two-thirds of the Book of Psalms. Each psalm is presented in English with a brief summary of the quotations that follow, presenting the theological reflections of the Church Fathers. The full quotes are a paragraph or two taken from longer works like Saint Augustines Confessions or Saint Jerome's letters. Footnotes provide the sources if readers want to get more; they also provide explanations if the authors reference then-current ideas, like Arian theology or Donatist attitudes. 

The book includes short biographies of all the authors and references to find the original, complete texts in their original languages or English translations. Like the previous volume, this is an excellent resource for delving deeper into each Psalm for research and reflection. 

Highly recommended.

SAMPLE QUOTE:

From commentary on Psalm 55, how punishment is the reward for impenitence: "This also is relevant to the accumulation of retribution, if the blind person not only is unable to perceive the light but also with pleasure seeks to increase the darkness of his blindness." On the Forgiveness of Sins by Fulgentius of Ruspe, p. 22

From commentary on Psalm 62, about trusting completely in God: "God will not forget even the saliva that has dried in your mouth as a result of fasting. On the contrary, everything will be returned to you at the moment of your anguish. Only humble yourself in all things, hold back your word even if you understand the whole affair. Do not quietly acquire the habit of abusing; on the contrary, joyfully put up with every trial. For if you knew the honor that results from trials you would not pray to be delivered from them, because it is preferable for you to pray, to weep and to sigh until you are saved, rather than to relax and be lead off a captive." Instructions 16 by Pachomius, pp. 49-50

From the commentary on Psalm 102, about Jesus's human body and soul: "...since he (Jesus) has an immortal nature, he took a body capable of suffering, and with the body a human soul. Both of these he kept unstained from the defilements of sin and gave his soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned and his body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body that was assumed is described as the body of the very only-begotten Son of God, he refers the passion of the body to himself." Letter 144 by Theodoret of Cyr, p. 216

From the commentary on Psalm 105, about slavery: "So the psalmist beautifully says, 'Joseph had been sold into slavery. They had bound his feet with fetters.' 'He had been sold into slavery,' he says; he did not become a slave. They had bound his feet, but not his soul." Letter 53 by Ambrose, p. 245

From the commentary on Psalm 131, on humility: "For glory is like the human shadow: if you follow it, it runs away; if you run away, it follows. Always value yourself least of all and remember, whenever any good befalls you throughout your life, ascribe it all to God who gave it, not to yourself who received it." Exhortation to Humility 8 by Martin of Braga, p. 363.

From the commentary on Psalm 136, on anthropomorphizing God: "God is not finite but the people's faculty of perceiving is finite. God is not restricted, but rather the understanding of people's minds is limited. Accordingly, our Lord said in the Gospel, 'The hour shall come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father,' and he gave the reason: 'God is spirit, and therefore they who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'" On the Trinity by Novatian, p. 378.

Book Review: Dark Passages of the Bible by Matthew J. Ramage

Dark Passages of the Bible: Engaging Scripture with Benedict XVI & Thomas Aquinas by Matthew J. Ramage

Plenty of passages in the Bible are hard to square up with Christian beliefs in the twenty-first century. The most famous is Abraham nearly sacrificing his only son on the command of God, a seemingly senseless and cruel request. Plenty of other verses command or condone lying, murder, and full-scale genocide. How can these texts be inspired? How can they be reconciled with teachings like "turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:39) or "love your enemies"(Matthew 5:44)? These problems draw a lot of contemporary interest. It has been grappled with through the years by a variety of theologians. And by "years" I mean three millennia of Judeo-Christian thought.

The classical solution is to look at the whole of Scripture and the spiritual meaning of passages. The enemies of the chosen people are metaphors for sins that should be cast away or destroyed without mercy. Isaac's sacrifice is clearly meant to foreshadow Christ's sacrifice. Often the literal sense of passages are ignored or twisted to make a theological point. Some of these interpretations are sublime; others are not very convincing.

With the advent of the historical-critical method in the 1800s and 1900s, bible scholars started looking at the historical contexts of the human authors, exploring why they would write what they did and how it compares to other ancient texts. The method allows thinkers to stay on a strict literal interpretation with clever guesses or conjecture about what the human authors meant and how they could and did contradict one another and future Christian teaching. The method stays at the human level, resulting in a lot of debunking or disbelief.

Pope Benedict XVI (the retired pope) has spent a lot of time and ink on the problem of the relationship between classical interpretations (what he calls "Method A" exegesis or analysis of scripture) and the works of the historical-critical method (what he calls "Method B" exegesis). Benedict acknowledges that both methods have flaws and strengths. He proposes a "Method C" to use the best of both approaches. Ramage explains all of this in the context of the more difficult passages of scripture, including issues like the conflicting evidence in the synoptic gospels and John's gospel about the date of Jesus's crucifixion. Benedict acknowledges the problem in his Jesus of Nazareth book covering Holy Week and offers suggestions to help resolve the difficulties. 

Ramage does a great job laying out the problems and the potential solutions. He also draws out how this idea of combining methods goes back at least as far as Saint Thomas Aquinas (who lived in the 1200s). Even though Aquinas didn't have historical-critical exegetes to deal with, he did see the tension between the literal and the spiritual understandings of scripture and made a lot of effort (similar to Benedict's) to reconcile the two. Ramage acknowledges that there are too many passages to deal with in just one book but his method, inspired by Benedict and Aquinas, is a great tool to have in developing a deeper understanding of the Bible as God's inspired word.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Thomas Aquinas: Selected Commentaries on the New Testament ed. Jason C. Paone

Thomas Aquinas: Selected Commentaries on the New Testament edited with an introduction and notes by Jason C. Paone

Saint Thomas Aquinas's most famous work is his Summa Theologiae, though perhaps his most popular is either Adoro te devote or Tantum ergo, though who in the pew really knows who writes hymns? His primary job as an academic in the 1200s was teaching and commenting on Scriptures. He wrote several commentaries which have been translated into English but are not readily available. To make an introduction to the texts for the academic crowd and others interested in his work, Jason Paone has brought together excerpts from various commentaries, interspersed with some of Aquinas's devotional poems.

Thomas's commentaries are highly organized and precise. When commenting on a set of Bible verses, he will break down in outline the points that the author is making. So he will say something like, "First, the author says this, second this, third this. About the first he makes two points. First he explains this, second he shows its relation to God's grace. In the first, he say..." The style makes the reader have to be very focused and retentive while reading. Such reading is well worth the effort as Thomas shows various ways that Church Fathers have taken a verse or various details that can be seen in the verse. He is very precise and has plenty of good insights. His style is a little dry compared to modern commentaries. This book is much better as devotional reading than as bedtime reading.

Recommended, highly if you want to dip your toe into Thomas's Biblical commentaries.

Movie Review: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini uses Italian Neo-Realism to present Matthew's Gospel in a faithful, if subdued, way. The actors are unknown. As Jesus, Enrique Irazoqui has a very placid face and a deliberate gaze. He's very meditative and sanguine for most of the film. The locations look rundown and oppressed. Pasolini depicts miracles without special effects or fancy visuals. The multiplication of loaves and fishes is not shown as five unending loaves but the sudden appearance of baskets and baskets of bread. At first, I thought the movie jumped to the end of the miracle, where the apostles gathered twelve baskets worth of leftovers, but the apostles started distributing from the new baskets. The crucifixion is fairly bloodless and less convincing than it could have been. A lot of the film involves close-ups of meaningful glances between people, so familiarity with the gospel is valuable to know what's going on in certain scenes.

The movie is interesting in its simplicity and straightforwardness. At times it feels a little slow and occasional shots seem like less than they should be, e.g. moments where Jesus only has four or six of His disciples with Him when you'd expect all twelve. Pasolini's socialism does not show through in the film. He makes no attempt to interpret the events of Jesus's life with any agenda. The focus is more on Jesus's preaching than his miracles, though the miracles are shown without embellishment or downplaying. I'm glad I watched it but probably won't watch it again.

Recommended.

Book Review: The Twelve by B. Avery et al.

The Twelve written by Ben Avery and illustrated by various artists

The lives of Jesus's twelve apostles are recounted in graphical format. Most of what we know about them is centered around the life of Jesus, drawing from the New Testament writings and other accounts from church history and tradition. Some of the apostles have more details and get longer passages in this book (like Peter and Matthew), some are only a few pages because they get little more than a name-check in the rosters of the twelve. The stories describe the deaths of the apostles (again, based on what we know from extra-biblical sources). All but one (John) died as martyrs to their faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God.

As with any compilation of biographies of a tight-knit group, some information overlaps and scenes gets repeated. Though there is one author for the graphic novel, a variety of artists worked on the individual stories. The styles are similar but sometimes the characters look different, which I found distracting. Otherwise, the book is a solid (but brief) overview of the apostles' lives and martyrdoms.

Recommended.

Book Review: Mother Angelica's Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures ed. by Raymond Arroyo

Mother Angelica's Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures introduced and edited by Raymond Arroyo

Mother Angelica, famous as the founder of EWTN, held many different Scripture studies throughout her life. Many were recorded (on tape, if you know what that is) and a selection has been made available by Raymond Arroyo, a friend and collaborator on the network. This book follows the Biblical structure, with lessons based on the Old Testament books coming first, followed by the Gospels and then the epistles.

This book is a mixed bag. She has a lot of interesting and entertaining insights. Her main idea is to see the Scriptures as a living story, as if you are actually there. Imagine you are in the Garden of Gethsemane--you can see torches in the distance and hear the low rumble of a crowd as it approaches your group on a moon-lit night. I liked that a lot. On the other hand, I did not agree with some of her characterizations and interpretations. Her earthy literalism is a two-edged sword. It can put you right there in the historic event; it can strike you as superficial or trivial or inaccurate. I found myself disagreeing with her, though my disagreements were far less than half the time. Your mileage will probably vary.

Mildly recommended. I'm glad I read it but probably won't re-read it.

Sample Quote: 

What is it that you do when you're proud or you lack humility? You kind of nourish yourself: "Mmm, I'm wonderful, I'm always right, I'm always good, I'm always persecuted, I'm always this, I'm always that." It's me, myself and I. You see, you're going to live with a trinity one way or another. The trinity is either me, myself, and I, or it's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The choice is yours. But if you're not with God, you're with yourself. [p.156]

Book Review: A Joyful Noise by Mike Aquilina

A Joyful Noise: Praying the Psalms with the Early Church by Mike Aquilina

Aquilina changes up his usual devotional format in this book that explores the Psalms through the eyes of the Church Fathers. Each Psalm has a brief introductory comment, the Psalms itself, followed by a callout of a few lines from the Psalm that show a key insight. Then he has a commentary from one or two of the Church Fathers. The end has another callout with questions to reflect on, looking at ways to apply the messages in your own life. The book only covers thirty-five Psalms, to keep it a manageable length (just over 200 pages). The book ends with a bunch of biographies of the cited Church Fathers which have their own charm, life stories ever ancient and ever new.

I like the format Aquilina uses which is more robust than other devotionals. The presentation is a nice way to get more insight into some of the PsalmsIt also inspires the reader to explore the rest of the Psalter and of the Church Fathers too.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

Modern Christians have a challenge when it comes to learning about Jesus Christ. The primary texts about Him and His life were written almost two thousand years ago in a style that is not familiar to today's readers. Even a contemporary translation that eschews "thees" and "thous" has an uphill battle with what seems to be choppy texts that do not share the sort of chronological through-line that we expect from history or biography. Literature has changed a lot; so has politics and technology. A quick glance would easily separate contemporary cities from classical cities, if one could see them side by side. The twenty-first century Christian has little context with which to imagine or identify with the first century world. Sheed puts his finger on the problem:

"Too many of us tend to think of our Lord as moving, and acting, and speaking in a sort of luminous vacuum called Palestine, with towns in it which are names but hardly places, of which no more need be known than that they were filled with Jews and ruled by Romans. For many Christians a kind of unreality attaches to our Lord, a though he were a figure in one of his own parables. It makes his words and deed more real to us if we see them in the place of their happening." [pp. 153-154]

Sheed bridges the gap for his readers with a highly readable text. He takes the story of Jesus from the four gospels and orders it out a bit more. He also provides the larger context of life way back then, filling in the details that the authors naturally assumed their contemporary audiences already knew. He explains the geographical connections of places. He gives some detail to what the Pharisees, Sadducees, Jews, Samaritans, Romans, royalty, peasants, lepers, tax collectors, and everyone else thought of themselves and of other groups. Sheed is also delightfully down to earth: "What of Peter? We cannot, for instance, imagine that born activist doing nothing at all when twice our Lord's enemies were on the point of stoning him. Surely, we feel, he must have punched somebody." [P. 302]

Sheed is also very cognizant of not going beyond the texts and re-weaving the story according to his own pattern. He admits candidly when he speculates or makes educated guesses and cautions the reader to use their own judgement. He refers back to the gospels often, sometimes even asking the reader to read a chapter or two before Sheed gives his own analysis and commentary. His honesty and faithfulness to the evangelists' words is refreshing and inspiring.

Of course, if you want to know Christ Jesus, you should read the gospels (and the rest of the New Testament too). Sheed would say the same thing. This book is a great supplement and well worth reading after (or along with) the gospels.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Thus Sayeth the Lord by Julie Davis

Thus Sayeth the Lord: A Fresh Take on the Prophets by Julie Davis

Biblical prophets are often thought of as a bunch of shabbily dressed grumpy guys giving bad news to the people of God. "You've been disobedient and God is going to smite you good!" is the expected message. While that is often the case, many times prophets look to a brighter Messianic future, set people back on the path of righteousness, or call down smiting on Israel's enemies. The devil, as they say, is in the details. Unfortunately, just jumping into the prophets is a daunting task, with source material amounting to hundreds of pages in any bible.

In this delightfully accessible book, Julie Davis reviews almost two dozen prophets in easily consumed doses. She gives brief biographies, what the individual prophets are famous for, and how they are applicable to contemporary life. She starts each chapter with passages to read from the Bible, kind of a "highlights reel," which is especially handy for those prophets who don't get their own named books (like Samuel or Miriam). Davis also points out that the best place to hear the messages of the prophets is the Catholic liturgy, where the readings are often paired up with their fulfillment in the Gospels. Best of all, she connects the prophets' messages and life examples to contemporary problems. Everyone has dealt with issues like when to speak up or how to be patient in adverse circumstances. She's honest and heartfelt, even using examples from her own life.

The book reads quickly and makes a handy reference to delve deeper into any particular prophet. Davis recommends other other scriptural overviews and commentaries for further reading.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Saint John the Baptist by Ezekiel Saucedo

Saint John the Baptist: A Voice Crying Out in the Desert written and illustrated by Ezekiel Saucedo

The life of John the Baptist is recreated in graphic-novel form. The book covers all the bits from the gospels and adds a little bit of supplementary story taken from traditional apocryphal sources. The biblical story is familiar and well rendered in an attractive style. The extra bit comes after the birth of John. When King Herod sends his soldiers to wipe out the new-born messiah, Zechariah and Elizabeth flee with their son John (who is in the age group of Jesus) to the wilderness. They die when he is a youth and leave him with a lot of spiritual equipment that forms him spiritually. John evangelizes at the Jordan River, baptizes Jesus, and is captured by Herod's son against whom John had preached. The ultimate beheading of John is dealt with discreetly not gorily. The story ends with Jesus praising John as one who fulfilled his role in salvation history.

The author does a great job depicting John's life in an engaging and kid-friendly way. The dialog sounds natural and the art works very well. As an adult, I enjoyed this a lot and will get my kids to read it too.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Joseph the Silent by Michel Gasnier

Joseph the Silent by Michel Gasnier, O.P.

Joseph, the husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, is only seen in the first few chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Even in those small sections, he has no words attributed to him. He does many things and has an active role in Jesus's childhood. The early Church probably downplayed the role of Joseph since he was overshadowed (quite rightly) by the true Father of Jesus. A tradition of devotion to Joseph eventually grew up. This book is a more recent contribution (first published in French in 1960).

The book is divided into thirty chapters that are typically five pages long. The format makes it an ideal monthly devotional. The reflections start with the prefigurements of Joseph in the Old Testament and work their way through the life of Joseph. Gasnier does a bit of extra-biblical research to expand on what it was like to be a carpenter and what the marriage traditions were like back then. He paints a convincing and detailed portrait of Joseph's life and his virtues--humility, obedience, and courage. Joseph was the fittest spouse for Mary since he shared her trust in God's will. Even with their hardships, they must have had an idyllic life. Living with grace-filled companions encourages and strengthens a virtuous character. In every way, Joseph is a fine role-model for us as we strive to live our lives with Christ.

I found this book a very valuable way to get to know Joseph better and to imitate his trust in God's will.

Highly recommended.

Quote on how the mix-up happened when Jesus got left behind in Jerusalem as a child:

Perhaps Jesus told his mother before the caravan started that he would stay with his "Father," and Mary had not realized which 'father' he was speaking of. [p. 100]

Movie Review: The King of Kings (1927)

The King of Kings (1927) directed by Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille is the king of classic epics. His color, talkie version of The Ten Commandments (yeah, he also made a black and white, silent version thirty-three years earlier) was a staple of Easter viewing when I was a kid. He also made a biopic of Jesus Christ called The King of Kings thirty-four years before the color, talkie version by some other director. How was DeMille's take on the gospel narratives?

The production values are classic DeMille. In addition to the lavish sets and costumes, two sequences are shot in color--the opening sequence showing the opulent lifestyle of Mary Magdalene and the resurrection sequence near the end of the film. Jesus is often depicted as shining or glowing, which is a bit cheesy to me. Other special effects are amazing, like the casting out of the seven demons from Mary Magdalene and the earthquake at the end of the crucifixion scene. The acting is typical of the silent era with the occasional affected melodramatic pose. H. B. Warner's performance as Jesus is a bit too detached and otherworldly for my tastes but is a choice I understand even if I don't find it inspiring.

The story is mostly faithful to the Scriptures, even using quotes for the dialogue/title cards with chapter and verse cited. The movie is intentionally reverent and an early title card notes Jesus's call to His disciples to spread the news of His life, a mission which this film also wants to serve. The movie's focus is solely on Jesus's public life (so no nativity sequence, alas). Some artistic and narrative liberties are taken. Events are put together in logical rather than chronological sets--when Jesus has to pay the tax (and he has Peter go fishing for a fish that just happens to have a coin in its mouth!) is joined with a pharisee questioning whether it is proper to pay the taxes. The scene concludes with Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector to be an apostle. The biggest creative licenses are Mary Magdalene as a wealthy and independent courtesan who becomes a follower of Jesus and the evangelist Mark being a child whom Christ cures and who follows the Savior throughout the movie. High Priest Caiaphas prays in the temple after the crucifixion that the crime of killing Jesus only be blamed on him and not the Jewish people, mollifying his villainous behavior earlier. These choices are interesting and certainly inoffensive to Christian sensibilities.

The pace of the movie is slow but not boring. I watched the premiere cut that played at Grumman's Chinese theater in 1927 which is 155 minutes long. The Criterion Collection DVD includes that version and the 112 minute general release version of the film.

Recommended.

Book Review: Megillat Esther by JT Waldman

Megillat Esther by JT Waldman

Esther's story is set during the Babylonian Exile, when the nation of Israel was overrun, Jerusalem sacked, and the people taken into slavery. The Jews were scattered over the Babylonian empire and some of the king's men schemed to wipe them out. The king had his own scheme--get rid of his unsatisfactory queen Vashti by, in essence, holding a beauty contest. Esther, a humble Jewish woman, was one of the many brought to Shushan (the capital city) to be judged if she was beautiful enough to be queen. The king fell for her without knowing her nationality. When his adviser Haman leads the attempt to wipe out the Jews, Esther intervenes and turns the tables on him and his conspirators. The story has drama, comedy, and pathos in a fine mixture.

Artist and author JT Waldman makes a fine blend of the story's classical and timeless elements in this graphic novel. Shushan looks like an ancient capital city and the clothing has an ancient opulence evoking the BC era. Some scenes are practically straight out of a reality TV show and Waldman evokes those with a modern sensibility, giving the story a lightness and sense of fun that may not immediately come out when reading an unadorned translation. The Hebrew text is interwoven through the panels lending the work another touch of authenticity. The back of the book has a bibliography, explanatory notes (like "Megillat Esther" means "Scroll of Esther" in English), and some Rabbinic citations.

This book is an interesting, creative take on the text of Esther.

SAMPLE TEXT:

Verse 2:18 (click to enlarge)

Book Review: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

Genesis is the source for many illustrated books. Noah's Ark is probably the most popular story in toddler books. Other stories are less kid friendly (like Noah's drunken nakedness) and even less graphic friendly (like the genealogies). This book depicts the entire fifty chapters and aims at a mature audience. It's a big ambition with mixed results.

Crumb does a great job communicating the emotional impact in the stories through the expressions on people's faces. The settings have a fine Middle Eastern appearance that adds to the stories. Even so, I find his style not to my taste. The women have unattractive faces, even though Sarah and Rachel are supposed to be quite beautiful. Also, a lot of women are topless or unclothed (much of it gratuitous) with only occasional male nudity. His commentary at the end of the book makes him sound sympathetic to feminism but his art does not look sympathetic. The combination is odd. He does give rich detail to many of his panels and it's amazing to see dozens of different faces in the genealogies.

This book is worth reading once but I'm sure I'll not come back to it.

Book Review: Messiah: Origin Adapted by Matt Dorff

Messiah: Origin adapted and edited by Matt Dorff, translations by Mark Arey, art by Kai Carpenter

A lot of superhero franchise reboots suffer from the same problem. The adapters don't appreciate the source material from which they craft a "new take on" or a "more relevant version of" someone like Superman, who has been ill-served recently in both comic books and on the big screen.

Messiah: Origin takes on a person much more significant than Superman. It retells the story of Jesus Christ's origin as described in the four Gospels. The text in the book is a new translation from the Greek without any new words or ideas added. The translation is happily faithful--the text is at once familiar and fresh. The words harmonize well with the new and striking imagery. Reading the book feels like plunging into history and art. It pulls out wonder and surprise from stories that may have become too familiar to pay close attention to. The reader feels the weight of the prophets pointing to the Messiah and the majesty of the angels who visit Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. Facial expressions communicate a lot and draw out the emotion of the events. The art is wonderfully evocative.

The authors of this book have done a brilliant job of weaving the source material into a seamless whole and presenting it in a visually affecting manner. The first page simple says "Messiah - Volume 1," and I can only hope that there are more volumes to come of this fresh and invigorating presentation of the gospel story.

SAMPLE IMAGE--The birth of the Lord

Movie Review: Noah (2014)

Noah (2014) co-written and directed by Darren Aronofsky

The tale of Noah's ark in the Book of Genesis is a mere four chapters, so any film-length version of the story needs to put more details in the story just to fill a feature length run time. In Darren Aronofsky's Noah, inspiration is drawn from many sources--other parts of the Bible, other ancient texts and teachings including the Book of Enoch, and Aronofsky's own imagination. His version of the story has Noah (Russell Crowe) fleeing with his family from the world of men because men are truly, despicably evil. He is haunted by dreams of an apocalyptic event and decides to visit his grandfather for guidance. Grandpa isn't particularly helpful and Noah decides the visions are telling him to build an ark to save the innocent beings from the coming disaster. Those innocent beings are (he assumes) the animals. Mankind is to be wiped from the lands and brute animals will inherit the earth. The local human tyrant, Tubal-cain (who also killed Noah's father when Noah was a child), wants the ark since he is the lord of men. He doesn't have so much a sense of impending disaster as he has a sense of entitlement. Conflict arises.

Normally, Noah would have no way to fight off an army by himself with only three sons. The movie posits another intelligent, physical set of beings who lived at that time--The Watchers. They are angelic spirits who defied the Creator and were imprisoned in rocks as a punishment. Initially, they helped the sons of Adam develop rudimentary technology after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, but men turned against the Watchers and began to hunt them. One Watcher befriends Noah as he travels to visit his grandfather and that Watcher convinces the other Watchers that they can redeem themselves by helping Noah fulfill his Creator-given task of surviving the flood.

The movie is incredibly uneven. Some of the special effects are breath-takingly beautiful (time passing, the account of creation). Others are head-scratchingly horrible (base camp at Mount Methuselah green screen effects, CG animals coming into the ark). The movie evokes the remoteness of the antediluvian world with images like the strange-looking sky, but breaks that evocation with the modern cut of some of their clothes (the cloth looked antediluvian at least but their hoodies and jackets did not). The movie gives some interesting elaborations on the biblical story but also goes so far in imaginative directions that it is very hard to take seriously (the rock monsters didn't bother me but genocidal Noah did). From what I've read, Aronofsky had this project in the back of his mind since he did a presentation as a student. The result is surprisingly unrefined.

Another difficulty for me is the recurring theme of the Creator's silence. Most characters (both good and bad) question the Creator and ask for direction only to be left to their own devices (and interpretations of cherry-picked bible quotes). The most detail anyone gets is Noah who has dream visions. He sees vivid flashes of the impending disaster. Noah has to deduce what he must do from these very scant revelations. He gets a key element wrong and even though he questions that element several times he does not get a correction from on high. Consequently, Noah as a character is very unlikeable and makes some very heinous decisions. The whole sequence on the ark felt contrived by the lack of communication between Noah and the Creator. Noah is ultimately redeemed in the film but for me it was too little too late.

Even though I found parts of the film artistic and interesting and I'm glad I saw the film, overall I found it an unsatisfying adaptation of the flood story.

The good folks at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast discuss the movie here. They liked it more than I did and do a wonderful job pulling out more from the movie.

Book Review: Exploring the New Testament World by Albert A. Bell, Jr.

Exploring the New Testament World by Albert A. Bell, Jr.

Inspired by Happy Catholic's upcoming trip to the Holy Land (there's probably still time to get in, find out here), I read this.

Albert Bell provides a comprehensive overview of the Roman world just before, during, and after the time that Jesus Christ lived on the earth. He covers the big picture elements, like the Roman government and how they exercised control (or mostly didn't) over provinces in their vast empire. He looks at the legal, moral, religious, and philosophical ideas (from the Greeks and Jews as well as the Romans) that dominated the overall culture of the time and how those ideas affected the lives of everyone in the empire. Some things are quite familiar to us living 2000 years later, such as people in big cities like Rome not going out at night for fear of robbers. Other things are completely unfamiliar, such as people being executed in barbaric ways during the games held at places like Rome's Colosseum. Bell also discusses minor, everyday things, like meals, social outings, dress, and the mingling of various classes together.

The point of this review is to give readers of the New Testament a better understanding of the context in which the gospels and epistles were written. Little details become more significant (like Paul's use of terminology from Greek philosophy and religious cults in order to speak more clearly to his listeners). Things which are not described because any first century AD reader would automatically understand are explained. For example, dates are not mentioned in the writings because many towns and kingdoms had their own numbering system based on when local rulers reigned. I found this book very helpful in laying out what the world was like back then.

The author is especially sensitive to the difficulty of his task, i.e. presenting the world as it was two thousand years ago. He gives fine overviews but also advises readers to use his bibliographies to find out more, especially in areas readers find interesting or  are uncertain about. He challenges us to learn more about the foundations of Christian faith so we can believe and understand more fully.

Sample quote on women's hair, which is too fun to pass up:

Jewish women wore such elaborate hairstyles, involving braids and hairpieces, that "it was forbidden to undo a woman's hairdo on the Sabbath because it involved transgressing the prohibitions of 'building' and 'demolishing'" (Encylcopedia Judaica 5:981). [p.246]

Book Review: The Book of Revelation Adapted by Matt Dorff

The Book of Revelation translated by Fr. Mark Arey and Fr. Philemon Sevastiades, adapted by Matt Dorff, illustrated by Chris Koelle

I'm fasting from fiction for Lent, so the graphic novels won't be back till after Easter, but this is graphic non-fiction...

One of the most difficult books to understand in the Bible is the very last one, the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. The disciple John on the island of Patmos has a vision of a time of great tribulation ending in a new Heaven and a new Earth. The imagery is rich and cryptic, full of numeric and pop culture references that are alien to readers two millennia later. The book makes fascinating but not necessarily satisfying reading.

This new translation of the book comes from two Greek Orthodox clergy who provide a precise, timeless English text. The drawings are very evocative. The visual tone is like a horror comic, with lots of black, grey, gold, and red dominating most of the pages. The illustrations are just that, illustrations of the text and not interpretations. When warriors are depicted, they look like Roman soldiers as befits a text written in the first century AD. The one bit the illustrator has taken from contemporary art is the use of reaction shots from cinema and television. As John is shown fantastical things, occasionally his reaction can be seen in a frame--sometimes wonder, sometimes horror. It works well in the text.

I found this graphic version of Revelation hard to put down. The images are well paired with the text, neither overwhelming the other. The book gives the reader a more visceral experience of the text, which may be a better way to understand it rather than trying to intellectually decode it.

SAMPLE IMAGE: Sadly for you readers, I've chosen the bit that made me say, "Hey, zombies!" Other illustrations are better representations but I've got to be me.

Click to enlarge