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December 30, 2004
jesus loves my bellybutton
ever since i read the superbly entertaining and enlightening God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson, i've been oddly fascinated with the King James Version (the "kay-jay-vee") of the Bible, especially considering i am younger than, oh, 87 years old. lately, the New International Version (the "en-eye-vee"), the juggernaut translation of recent times, just isn't as interesting.
this past Sunday, i was stuck in a class that had only KJVs for those of us who had committed the cardinal sin of Not Bringing One's Own Bible To Church. this, it turned out, was quite fabulous. instead of having to pay attention to the teacher like i was supposed to, i began reading. don't judge me; the passage we were looking at was Proverbs 3:5-6. if you grew up going to church, you'd glaze over too. they're great verses; they're just on too many inspirational magnets /wall hangings/those little plaques you hang over the toilet.
almost immediately, i was struck by verse 8: "it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones."
thy navel? thy navel? how have i missed biblical bellybuttons all this time? and what if your navel is pierced? since this is the KJV, of course that would be "pier-SED," right? and marrow -- well, having a close friend just go through the experience of being chosen as a marrow donor for an anonymous leukemia patient, i am much more aware of how insightful this particular analogy is. now let's just, for kicks and giggles, check out the NIV: "this will be health to your body and nourishment to your bones." yawn.
lest you Nivvers take offense, i do still use the NIV for my normal Bible reading. i'm not going to pretend i actually like or even understand words like "froward" or "verily," but there is a music to the KJV that my cute lil' postmodern non-liturgical-service ears respond to. it's just good to interact with Scripture in a different way.
there is an excellent exhibit at my much-loved Huntington Library and Gardens called "The Bible and the People", which i recently saw, and last month i fulfilled a long-held dream by seeing the Book of Kells when i was at Trinity College, Dublin. i'm now so much more acutely aware of how cavalier i am towards the long and winding road that brought us the holly bibble, as my sister and i used to snickeringly call it. true, my bibble has no cool gold-leafed drawings of mice & cats having communion, but i didn't scrape calf hides or have to spend my life savings to obtain one. i take the Bible for granted: my response to Scripture is too often a *yawn!* or just skimming quickly over familiar verses -- especially ones with the ignoble fate of ending up in Christian bathrooms.
all i'm saying here is: give your bibble a chance. if you're a person who thinks the Bible is a load of hooey, at least read it for the really, really good stories (there are lots of rated-R ones!) -- you won't be bored. if it's gotten stale, find a new translation. you can go back in time, like me, with the KJV. or fast-forward to cool ones like the word on the street. maybe the most important thing is to let it read you too, to let it resonate, to tickle your bellybutton.
Posted by hadashi at December 30, 2004 1:36 PM
Comments
Seeing the Bible and the People at the Huntington really gave me a fresh perspective on the Bible too. It's so easy to take it for granted until you look at the fact that people were actually martyred just for printing it for the masses.
I got a book for Christmas that is a history of the Bible that has even more amazing info in it than the exhibit.
Posted by: Joanna at December 30, 2004 6:41 PM
I have been aurally maimed by that exhibit.
'Nuff Said...
Posted by: Ms. Jen at January 15, 2005 3:39 PM
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