Education & All That

A couple of days ago, I was in an online discussion about whether schools (colleges, esp.) should focus on transmitting the knowledge required to do a particular job, or strive to produce a well-rounded person who may (or may not) have a special skill. I reflected briefly on my own school career, and what I valued about it, and responded thusly:

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In college I saw lots of smart, ignorant people (not excluding myself). College was more about training; less about education. The university was expected to produce money-makers, young energetic capitalistic chainsaws. Not citizens; not....human beings in the fullest sense of the term. I half-joke about my school career, K through Master's degree: I had one subject in K-12 that was about educating me, as a citizen of America, and the world: Latin. And in college I had one subject that did the same: Art and Architectural History. All the rest was training (I exaggerate a bit) to make money, to be productive in the ways that can be measured on a W-2.

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It's true: all we need to be affluent is training. But I see that what I value more are mostly things that don't make money: Scrooge's change of heart in A Christmas Carol; Rembrandt's portrayal of forgiveness in The Prodigal Son; van Gogh's wheatfields; Dorothy realizing there's no place like home, because the people who love her are there; the selfless love of husband and wife in O. Henry's Gift of the Magi; the fact that I could say 'philosopher' or 'logos' to Socrates or Jesus, and they would understand me; that math shows me the Mind of God; the transcendence of Hagia Sophia; that Debussy stood on Tchaikovsky's shoulders, who stood on Beethoven's, who stood on Mozart's, that they each successively created what their musical predecessors could not have imagined; that God bursts out of his children, and in their own unique ways they express his creativity and love.

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The difference between education and training: between living, and getting & spending; between citizens and consumers; between babies and masses of tissue; between a nation and a population.

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I figure it's better as a society, a family of Man, to be less well trained, and better educated. That does beg the question of who is going educate whom in exactly what, but that'd require another post.

Mary, Does that Sweatrag Look Rolled-up to You?

I saw this article about a month ago, did a little research then....seemed unpersuasive to me:

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never noticed this....
The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes......

It goes on from there, you can find it online all too easily. The rest of this post won't make sense without reading the original article.

The article's based on the King James version of John 20:7, and depends a good bit on the English words napkin, and folded.

The word napkin shows up 3 times in the whole KJV:

Luke 19:20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

John 11:44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

John 20:7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

Napkin's a translation of σουδάριον, soudarion, from the Greek stem for sweat, with the following Bible meanings (per Strong's Concordance):

1) a handkerchief

2) a cloth for wiping perspiration from the face and for cleaning the nose and also used in swathing the head of a corpse

Notice in none of the 3 occasions napkin is used in the KJV does it have anything to do with eating or mealtime (nor do Strong's definitions). Later translations than the KJV (I checked about half a dozen) don't say napkin anywhere, since its use in the KJV is now archaic, and its modern association with mealtime can be confusing.

Now, folded is intended to translate the Greek word ἐντυλίσσω, entylisso, which has the following Bible meaning:

to roll up, wrap together.

In the KJV NT entylisso is used only 3 times:

1. Matt 27:59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth...

2. Luke 23:53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

3. John 20:7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

In no case does the online KJV I searched substitute the word fold for wrap. About half of the later translations say fold here; the others say wrap or roll up.

The NT KJV does use the English verb fold once, by the way, here:

Heb 1:12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

The word the KJV is translating is ἑλίσσω, helisso, which isn't really the Greek word for fold, anyway (that's δίπλωμω, diplomo; like some English word...I forgot what it is).

Helisso and entylisso are related, they have the same root meaning of rolling or twisting, which is like our Greek loanword helix. So even the Greek word the KJV translates as fold has rolling or twisting as its base meaning. As it turns out, later translations don't say folded, but rather rolled up. My guess is the KJV team used fold since people in their day (and ours) would fold clothes, not roll them up; but later translators used rolled up to stay closer to the Greek verb.

So the whole business in the email about folding napkins at mealtime is made up as far as I can tell.

The only significance I know of regarding the rolled-up headcloth is that it shows Jesus' body was not hurriedly snatched by robbers, e.g, in the Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–1710) by Matthew Henry:

"The grave-clothes were found in very good order, which serves for an evidence that his body was not stolen away while men slept. Robbers of tombs have been known to take away the clothes and leave the body; but none ever took away the body and left the clothes, especially when it was fine linen and new. Anyone would rather choose to carry a dead body in its clothes than naked. Or, if those that were supposed to have stolen it would have left the grave-clothes behind, yet it cannot be supposed they should find leisure to fold up the linen."

Next thing you know, someone will be adding other jots & tittles on their own authority...like this:

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So halten wir nun dafür, daß der Mensch gerecht werde ohne des Gesetzes Werke, allein durch den Glauben.

(Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law)

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Just speculating.

Anastasis

Last week we were discussing the physical literalness of Jesus' death: that not only did Jesus' Human nature die on the cross, but so did his Divine nature....which the kids don't grasp right away, because of course, God can't die, right? Well, in this case he can and did, and how that can be is a mystery....which we don't understand, but then God is more than we can figure out. And remember, Adam & Eve thought they had God figured out.....turned out to be a big mistake on their part.

So some of the things we look at as part of this need for the Sacrifice to be, you know, sacrificed, killed, are bits of Leviticus 4 & 5 (they already know about killing & eating the Passover Lamb). There's a lot of this going on:

"the bullock shall be killed before the LORD...and the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him." The bit about atonement & forgiveness is repeated 9 times in these two chapters. You'd think with all that sacrificing, atonement, and forgiveness, everybody'd be going to heaven, but noooo. Why not?

I get a volunteer Jewish sinner to come up & whisper to me some sins, and as a Levite priest (and also a sinner) I say, "Uh, oh, that sin's gonna cost you a lamb and two doves. A really nice lamb, not some scrawny thing you got on sale." The sinner hands over the sacrifices, I kill them, make atonement, he's forgiven. All done, off to heaven? No, the problem is our sins are such an offense that we can't make it up to God on our own. It's like when I was a callow youth and broke a neighbor's window. My ability to atone was at the level of taping the pieces back together. A nice gesture, but it's still a busted window. I wound up needing my father to apologize and fix the window to get things properly restored. So, as I needed my father to atone for my mischief, we need a perfect Lamb to perfectly atone for our sins.

Now I ask, if we need Jesus the perfect Pascal Lamb's death to atone completely for our sins, to redeem us, did all these good people doing their best go burn in Hell before Jesus was crucified? The kids intuit correctly, no.....but...

That was it for the class period. Next class will start with recalling from the Creed, "he descended into Hell"......where was that exactly, and was Jesus dead when he was there?

First we'll discuss Sheol and Gehenna, Hades & Hell. I'll run through the parable about Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

Then I'll hand out the scene at the top of the page, known in English as the Harrowing of Hell; in Greek, the Anastasis (ανάστασις) , the Resurrection.

[Hey, let's digress and check out the Greek on the fresco: Over Christ's head is H ANAsTACIC, the Anastasis (the odd-looking T is a contraction of a lower case s and and a capital T). To the left is IC, short for IECUC, Jesus; to the right, XC, you guessed it, XRICTOC, Christos. I wonder, considering all the time a fresco or mosaic takes, why save 10 minutes by abbreviating? Am I digressing?]

In the Anastasis we'll see dead Jesus breaking down the gates of 'Hell,' and yanking Adam & Eve out. On the left we see old King David (now there's an expert sinner...can you say Uriah and Bathsheba? They know that story.), young King Solomon, and John the Baptist (the 'Forerunner'). On the right, Abel (the 'Protomartyr') with his shepherd's crook, and other heaven-bound folks I don't know...probably prophets.

I anticipate a lot of 12-year-old brains on fire; we should have some good discussion.

This will lead us into the next chapter which runs from Jesus' burial up to the Ascension and possibly including Pentecost.

Christmas Party!

Sorry, our class does not have a Christmas party. We have a regular class period, which consists mostly of suffering. We cover Christmas themes and consume a modest amount of candy.

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This is the kids' favorite part of the Christmas class:

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I remind the children that for a long time most people couldn't read, and that even if they could, there weren't many books available, including the Bible. So one way people learned their faith was through pictures. All the kids know what a Nativity scene looks like, but what they don't know is that the components of a Nativity relate to prophecies by Isaiah (they already know who Isaiah is).

So what we do is make our own nativity scene, with Isaiah as our guide. That is, we'll create a New Testament portrait by using the Old Testament. As the kids name each image that goes in the picture based on each bit of Scripture, I draw that bit on the board.

I read the following passages from Isaiah one at a time:

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7:13-14 Hear ye now, O house of David...the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Mary (and Joseph) are drawn, but not the (baby) son, for reasons that will become apparent later....maybe you can guess.
40:9 ......O Jerusalem, you bring good tidings (evangelousious)...be not afraid, say...Behold your God!
This one isn't so obvious. First we recall from Luke 2 what the shepherds heard, "Be not afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy," and compare that to the Isaiah passage to see how Luke borrows from Isaiah to show Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled. Then I write 'ev/angelousious' on the board, and explain how it means good/tidings, good/news, good/message in Greek (they've already been exposed to other Greek words such as bishop and euthanasia). Focusing on the good/message translation, I erase the front and back of evangelousious so we have angel, and the kids figure out that an angel is a....messenger! (and since the message comes from heaven, the messenger is shown with......wings!) On the board go a couple of winged messengers.
40:10-11 Behold, the Lord GOD.....shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee.
This is an easy one, I draw shepherds and lambs.
60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
The star of course....

60:3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
The three kings...not that Scripture says anything about three of them, but there were three presents, and nobody brings more than one present, so.....
60:6 The multitude of camels shall come...
Camels...one-hump ones, Isaiah says they're Dromedaries, not two-humped Bactrians.
....they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the LORD.
Gold for a king, incense for worshiping God, (myrrh to bury the dead); I doodle a few pots.

1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: " I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; 3 The ox knows its owner And the ass its master’s manger But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."
An ox and an ass, naturally, with giggles about, you know, an ass. And let's look at the French word for "eat": manger (meɪnʤə). So what's a manger? Yes, it's what the animals eat out of, the name tells us so. And whose manger is it? The master's, yes, and who is the master? Yes, Jesus, so at last I draw the baby in the manger.
And let's notice that Isaiah says Israel doesn't know the master, but the dumb animals the ox and ass do (maybe they aren't so 'dumb'), and as we see from the picture we've drawn, the humble, uneducated shepherds know who Jesus is, and so do the Gentile Kings, who aren't even Jewish. So we see that Jesus came for the Jews, for non-Jews (that's us), the rich and the poor. Jesus came for everyone.

Beim Schlafengehen

The whole process of getting old is ever fascinating, and the older I get, the more I'm interested in the perspectives of those who are older still, especially those who know themselves to be on the cusp of death. About 25 years ago, by chance I checked out a CD by soprano Kiri Te Kanawa: Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. Composed in the last year of his life, they are about death. The mood, which was striking then to a young man, and grows more meaningful each year, is one of peace, pleasant tiredness, acceptance of mortality.

Among the four, I return the most to Beim Schlafengehen (At the Going to Sleep, my translation); a poem by Hermann Hesse, set to music by Strauss.

The words are effective even without music, and in English:

Now the Day wearies me;
all my longing Desires should
sweetly succumb to the starry Night
like a tired Child. Hands, let go of all Work;
Brow, forget all Thoughts.
Now all my Senses
would sink themselves in Slumber.
And my unregarded Spirit
would rise on spread Wings
in Night's magic realm
to live deep and thousandfold.

At age 51, I'm not the least bit tired of living, or better put, tired from living. But such work as this helps me imagine being that tired. It shows that one may reach such a point in life, and that although death is something I would avoid now, I may feel different much later, when death might seem to be more of a transition and less of an ending.

Barney & St. Augustine

From time to time students will mention that their big brother/ grandmother/ one or both of their parents doesn't go to church. This usually crops up when we discuss the 4th Commandment, Honor Thy Father and Mother. My standard response is that, as children, they don't have any authority over their parents, but that they should certainly pray for whomever they wish to be closer to God.
 
This year was a little different, and I didn't have to mention anyone's relatives. I started by discussing the 15-year period in my life that I didn't take God seriously, and used that as an intro to that famous sinner St. Augustine (who has a city named after him in Florida, but it's pronounced differently). I explained how his mother, St. Monica (who has a beachtown named after her in Spanish) prayed for about 15 years (!) that her dissolute son would have a change of heart and return to the Christian faith of his childhood. Eventually Augustine did just that, and in time became a great saint. Maybe someone prayed 15 years for me, too; not that I'm a saint, but if anyone has relatives they wish were closer to God, do as St. Monica did and pray for them.

"Now, everybody, sing along!
I love you, you love me,
We're a happy family
With a great big hug
And a kiss from me to you,
Won't you say you love me too"

You should see all the laughing faces as the kids join in singing the theme song from Barney the Dinosaur...one reason they're laughing is that it makes no sense to be singing Barney in Wednesday Night Sunday School. Another reason is that they're too old to watch now, but it's fun to remember when they were little kids...now that they are 11 or 12 and too mature for Barney.

"Hey, how many of you used to watch Barney when you were little?" Nearly every hand goes up.
"Who still watches?" No one, except a couple who sheepishly admit they still do sometimes.
"Why don't you watch anymore?
Well....it's for little kids. 
If you watched it now, how would you like it?
We'd be bored. 
Why would you be bored? You used to think it was interesting.
Because we're smarter now...we're older.
Right. You're older, you know more now, you want something more interesting. Stuff from when you were 4 years old doesn't engage your brain anymore. This is the problem a lot of people have with taking God seriously as they get older. Y'all are going to be done with Wednesday Night Sunday School in two more years, after you are Confirmed. That's the last time many people learn about God. Imagine when you're a grownup that all you know about God is what you learned when you were 13. Can you guess how boring God will seem? More boring than you think Barney is right now. This is why you have to keep learning about God all your life: God is way more interesting than Barney, but an adult that has a kid's knowledge of God is going to think Barney and God are both for kids. Some people you may know have this problem; like St. Monica, you should pray for them. And as you get older, make sure you keep learning about God and his Church so that it's never boring to you.

That way nobody in your family will someday be praying for you to come back to church."

Recaps

Each class usually starts with a recap of the previous class, not to exceed 5 minutes. The recap is done from a sheet of notepaper which has maybe 5 words or phrases I wrote down after the previous class. I punch holes in the notepaper and it goes in my class binder in front of this week's lesson plan. If time permits, the recap may have some new ideas as well. New ideas will always tie the recap to something else: a Bible story, something Catholic, something they already learned, or something that they'll be learning in the future, i.e, anticipating a future lesson.

For example, last week we finshed up with a bit about Elisha & Elijah using Elijah's cloak to cross over Jordan on dry ground (2Kings 2). Part of this week's recap added a reenactment of Elijah putting his cloak over Elisha in the field to show Elisha would succeed Elijah (1Kings 19); using the chicken bone relic to remember that Elisha's bones brought a dead man back to life (2Kings 13:20); and finally recalling that Elijah, who was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, later appeared talking with Jesus at the Transfiguration (Matt17).

God's grace, God's power, can go through physical things. This theme prepares the class for understanding Sacraments.

Later on, when we learn about Elisha and Naaman as a prelude to baptism (2Kings 5), they'll already have some idea of who Elisha is.