Bible Study Face to Face (by Everett Fox)

[Sparkey]

I've just returned from Barnes and Nobel where I've ordered a book to be delivered and want to share a nugget found in the author's preface. The book is "The Five Books of Moses" by Everett Fox.

Here then are print-screens from Amazon Online (Look Inside) function.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE​

... read the Bible as though it were something entirely unfamiliar, as though it had not been set before you ready made... Face the book with a new attitude as something new ... Let whatever may happen occur between yourself and it. You do not know which of its sayings and images will ovewhelm and mold you... but hold yourself open. Do not believe anything a priori. Read alound the words written in the book in front of you: hear the word you utter and let it reach you.

--adapted from a lecture of Martin Buber, 1926​

Here then, are the author's comments continued...

Pardon the length of the post but I believe that there are nuggets contained that may be dug out by careful reading of the preface as well as reading the translation that conveys the original sound and poetic nature of the Hebrew Language. If you're like me, you won't need the admonishment to read again, more slowly...
:nod

The author goes on to discuss other uses and images of the word "face" like we find in Genesis when the Face of God hovers (expectantly) over the waters. It is a profound view that captures the imagination of the reader and supports the purpose to help readers step back to the unfamiliar as they look at, and partake, of the Bible face to face.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

It is a profound view that captures the imagination of the reader and supports the purpose to help readers step back to the unfamiliar as they look at, and partake, of the Bible face to face.

Which was exactly what I was talking about when I stated that it is the closed canon that we will see face to face.

 

[jasoncran]

ok, I was aware of that idea in jewry. the idea of face to face meeting with god isn't as we say it but rather an open friendship. a meeting. as moses could talk to god like men do to each other that are friends.

sparrow. you have nudged me to learn Hebrew. I have been told that I should.i was mentioning this problem with the bible reading in that we non-Hebrew speakers don't know the languages of greek and Hebrew. when we do word studies we don't know the contexts it used. if ya noticed he said read out loud. my friend that is what the Hebrews did in the gates of their cities. they didn't do "church" they had open air discussions on the tanach.

we Christians sit at home and read. few discuss the bible in a study session at church.