(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Boring Stuff is the Good Stuff [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-04 Good morning all. I hope my series of stories here will add to the overall excellence of the conversations that I read daily. By. way of introduction, I am a retired school teacher and, having the same last name as the family that gave us two of the darkest influences in American life today, I thought perhaps it was time to redeem that name. In case you are wondering, Thomas Dixon wrote the novels upon which the film Birth of a Nation was based. The Leopard’s Spots and The Klansman made the man. famous and the film made him rich and famous. It bears knowing also that he was a fundamentalist minister before that term was in general use. His brother, A.C. Dixon, was an editor of a set of essays that were published under the title of The Fundamentals, essentially naming the fundamentalist movement. Although it is unclear to me that the average Baptist minister today troubles himself with reading or ideas, these essays would tell that minister how to be a fundamentalist. It seems that A.C. Dixon had the curious notion that ministers should be educated, lettered men and that pumping iron, taking steroids, and preaching about the manliness of Jesus may not be the best measures by which to judge a minister of the Gospel. I will have much more to say about all of this later. in the meantime, let me plant some seeds for future discussion. I spent decades teaching students how to critically assess texts. I do wonder how many of them have taken those lessons to heart but I am confident that the arc of some of their lives was changed permanently by what we did in class. The arc of my life was certainly changed because, as the saying goes docendo discimus, by teaching we learn. I am certain that the Dixon ancestors would be appalled to learn that some of the best primary source exercises can be found in Bible. I offer today an example of which I recently became aware. It is in part of the Bible that is almost universally skipped as being dry and boring. I thought as much as well, until I read a book by Richard Fiedman, Who wrote the Bible? This book is such a pleasure as it is written for laymen, like me but it is not written in a didactic manner. It is a gentle guide to historical thinking and, in my view, historical truth. Friedman. points out that there is really good stuff in the boring parts of the Bible. For example, In 2 Kings, verse 22, King Josiah gives orders for the high priest Hilka to spruce up the temple and clean it out. Then the most amazing thing happens, Hilka finds a book and what does the book say? It basically tells the Hebrew people that they have been worshiping the wrong way for hundreds of not thousands of years. 3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphanson of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the Lord. He said:4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord— 6 the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. 7 But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings.” 8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant:13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” www.biblegateway.com/... King Josiah, after learning of this new discovery has what can only be called a conniption. He tears his clothes and we learn in the next chapter that idols were smashed, religious implements were burned and priests of non-conforming religious practices were ordered to go to Jerusalem but they became second rate clerics. Priests of other cults were murdered and even the bones of dead priests were dug up and burned. High places were desecrated and worship was centralized in Jerusalem. What are we to make of all of this? Well, it is tempting to think that Hikah wrote the book in question just before supposedly discovering it laying around in the temple. (Scholars think that the book was Deuteronomy, by the way, but more on that later.) The whole thing looks and smells like a setup to gain more power for Hilkian’s branch of the priesthood or to set the stage for an increase in the power of the king. Perhaps there was a deal between the king and Hilkiah in which both parties gained. It is a little difficult to know exactly what the motivations of these people were, since they did not leave diaries for us to examine, so I have come to the conclusion that the word fraud my be too strong to use here. Maybe Hilkian and Josiah were just realists who were trying to unite their people in the face of predatory empires. After all, the northern kingdom had just been annihilated by the Assyrians. Maybe Josiah was contemplating rebellion against whomever he was obligated to pay tribute. It is hard to say. While these are interesting questions, what concerns me here is the question as to why this passage in the Bible does not seem to really bother modern fundamentalists. After all, if the early Hebrews were doing it all wrong, how can the writings and stories of those early Hebrews be regarded as holy writ? What else is in the Bible that is called into question in the Bible itself ? I think we will be able to find a great deal, even in translation without resorting to learning Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic to examine these questions. If you have read this far, you may be asking what does this have to do with the modern world or our current political situation? Well, I think if you stay with me for a while, you will begin to see the connections. Of course, many of you already see it but I will keep writing anyway, if for no other reason than to exculpate the Dixon family name. See you next time. W.G. Dixon. 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