BEAUTY IS YOUR TEACHER.

“Children have their teacher to instruct them but the adults have us, the poets! That is why it is important for us to tell them things that are good!” 

Aristophanes, Frogs 1055

HOMER USES MYTH TO ADORN THE PAST.

It was the Stoic philosophical school which inherited Plato’s view that poetry offered hearers “instruction.” The purpose of poetry beit Homer or Hesiod was διδασκαλία, or moral instruction contributing to the good and virtuous life. The big idea is that however fictitious or outlandish, the events and characters in ancient poetry could teach you how to live. Virtuous characters and noble causes inspired good words and good deeds. Obversely, vice and treacherous pursuits could be used to inhibit destructive paths. You only have to decide which characters to hold as exemplary and which are negative examples to gain wisdom. 

This view is exemplified in Strabo’s polemic against Eratosthenes in his Geography, a 17 volume survey of the natural world written sometime between 20 BCE and 23 CE. Eratosthenes had noticed, along with most literaty critics, that many stories in Homer were far-fetched and could not have happened as Homer recorded them. To defend the educator of Greece, Erastothenes argued that rather than being the poet’s fault, later interpreters had added to the Homeric poems their opinions about epic localities matching real localities in the Mediterranean and these interpreters attached educational value to Homer which the poet would never have intended. Strabo restates Eratosthenes argument like this:

By Zeus, he (Erastothenes) said these things thus- but the things outside of perception, both he and others have filled with marvelous tales of myth.

Strabo, Geography 1.2.3

Strabo refutes Eratosthenes’ position, arguing that Homer himself employed mythological elements for the purpose of adornment or poetic expression. At the same time, Strabo adamantly refutes the notion that Homer would make things up whole cloth. Strabo charts a middle position that Homer is narrating real events and places, but at times for the pleasure or moral instruction of the hearer, dresses the stories up in mythological trappings.

There are benefits to Homer’s approach, for Strabo, because poetry is more accessible to a larger audience, while philosophy is only for the learned aristocracy. In this way, Strabo refutes the literalist position which argues rather than poetry, one should look for moral instruction in philosophical didactics. THe also proffers that mythology accomplishes aesthetic beauty in poetry for the purpose of leading hearers to moral virtue. That is, once they are charmed by the beauty of the poetic art and mythological entertainment, they cannot help but consider the moral discussion alongside the pleasure of the story.

TEXTS ADORN EVENTS.

When it comes to the Bible, we can place a couple of Strabo’s ideas in our remythology toolkit. First, Strabo argues that mythology adorns events so that it helps as many people as possible. What if the Bible preserves a historical kernel or a real event whenever it speaks of the past, and at the same time, scribes dress up the past with mythology? Does it have to be either or, history or myth? Can it be instead, stories that have grown larger than life over time which do preserve the Israelite exerience and naming of God? I think there is a middle ground where historical kernel blossoms into literature. And literature, well it moves you in a way a law code or a text book never could.

When we read the stories of the Bible, we appreciate beautiful literature that points to God and his actions. The stories of the Bible are ancient scribes attempting to name God and what they claim he has done for his people, Israel. God and his interaction with Israel is the historical kernel behind the stories, legends, myths, songs, lawcodes, and lists cultivated, pruned, and prepared by the scribes. This means the historical kernel has been adorned to help you grow in faith and virtue…but you have to turn up the aesthetic appreciation dial and turn down the revelation—o-meter. You have to see the Bible as coming from scribes who know what they are doing and not from a court transcript proving God and his actions in the world. 

You see for Strabo, the obvious fantastic elements in Homer were a problem because Homer was supposed to be infallible— a primary and ultimate source. This is the same argument well-intentioned people make when they argue the Bible is revelation and so it can never be wrong (innerrent, infallible, etc…). Strabo dodges the problem by arguing that Homer himself used some mythological elements for the purpose of adornment or poetic expression. At the same time, Strabo adamantly refutes the notion that Homer would make things up whole cloth. Strabo takes the middle position that Homer is narrating real events and places, but at times for the pleasure or moral instruction of the reader, dresses the stories up in mythological trappings. Moreover, Homer adorns his poetry with myth to instruct: 

And many folks dwelling in the cities on one hand are lead towards imitation by the pleasurable myths, whenever they hear the poets describing mythical (deeds) of bravery, such as Hercule’s labors or of Theseus, or the honors being bestowed by the Gods, or by Zeus, or whenever they see paintings or carved images or anything molded suggesting any certain such reversal of fortune with respect to mythology—

On the other hand in regard to prevention, whenever they admit punishments by the Gods, fearful things, and threats, either through stories or through certain unseen forms— or even whenever they think to have befallen certain things.

Strabo, Geography 1.2.8

So Homer knew what he was doing just like the scribes who wrote the Bible. People are pursuaded by story, the more fantastic the better. And Homer is an expert at embellishment. Strabo argues, “A man will lie more plausibly if he mixes in the some of the truth.” Homer, argues Strabo, took the foundation of his stories from historical truths:

And should Homer tell myths, he does it with precision and greater indeed that those who wrote later, not talking in marvels of all kinds, but instead towards scientific knowledge he interprets allegorically or disposing the material stories, or demagoguing and certainly also the things about the wandering of Odysseus.

Strabo, Geograpy 1.2.7

This is a little tricky, but Strabo is already hinting at the ninja move of the first literary critics to follow Plato: Allegory. The very points where Homer seems to be adding impossible elements to the story or anachronisms or folktales, the poet is actually hinting at deeper truths to be uncovered by later thinkers. Philo, followed by the Church Fathers, will make the same move. Whenever parts of the Bible bother them or stump them or seem impossible, they will explain it away philosophically and theologically. Snakes don’t talk? No problem because we know Satan does, and so he appeared as a serpent in the garden of Eden (don’t laugh I have heard about a hundred pastors claim this with certainty…). And the beat goes on… Seriously though, biblical scholarship in the Late Antique period came to read the text symbolically towards Christian theology in the precise places things get dodgy, because pagan exegetes like Strabo did it, and then Philo, and then the Church Fathers. 

BEAUTY IS YOUR TEACHER.

So one one hand Strabo explains how Homer employs mythic elements in his poetry to instruct, andon the other he tells us why it works. Strabo argues the benefit to Homer’s approach is that beauty is a teacher. Poetry is more accessible to a larger audience, while philosophy is only for the learned. In this way, Strabo refutes the literalist position which argues rather than poetry, one should look for moral instruction in philosophical writings. For Strabo, epic poetry and myth could teach you to calmly thrive in life and virtue.

What if the Bible is the same way? It is not all poetic, although almost half of the Hebrew Bible is poetry, but it is all ancient literature and it is bejeweled with myths, legends, folktales, and the like. And so rather than viewing fantastic elements of the Bible as undercutting the historical record, see that the historical memories of ancient Israel as cast into brilliant story and song for the purposes of instruction. Mythology accomplishes aesthetic beauty in poetry for the purpose of leading hearers to moral virtue. That is, once they are charmed by the beauty of the poetic art and mythological entertainment, they cannot help but consider the moral discussion alongside the pleasure. 

When I was eight, I was walking to a St. Louis Cardinals game with my father and a friend. As it often is, beggers lined the way to Busch stadium in hopes for spare change from the crowds on their way to the game. I remember watching everyone around me walk past or around everyone asking for mercy like it was the most normal thing imaginable. It seemed normal to everyone that there were hungry or addicted or out of work or desparate people crying out for help. It seemed normal to just act like the beggers were not there at all. It seemed normal to treat them as invisible. This was the way it had been abd would be. If you wanted to go to a game, you had to walk past some annoying and ignorable impoverished folks to get there. Being eight, this was one of my first times in a large city and it was the first time I noticed the way of the world to sweep poverty and destitution under the rug. 

Then I saw something beautiful. A random guy came walking from the other direction and walked right up to a begger in front of me. he didn’t just give him money, he looked him in the eye and gave him money and simply said, “I see you brother.” And then he went on his way. All of a sudden something new was possible because I had seen beauty. All of a sudden, something in me was broke for the poor but also brave for what was possible. Apparently you could talk to a homeless guy just like anyone else…and live to tell about it. It seemed at least to me, that you could honor the dignity of even a person on their last dime just as if you met your brother on the corner. 

This man’s example of giving to the needy was so  different and courageous and rare and inspiring and formative. I never forgot it because it was such a dramatically bright color on a drab canvas. And many times now I have done something similar to acknowledge and help a complete stranger without knowing how she ended up in poverty or how she would spend my change. What I saw was the virtue of philanthropia, love of humankind. What I saw was compassion and it changed me deeply.  

The stories of the Bible can change you in the same way. Against a sea of “the way things are,” myth can be a colorful sail headed somewhere far off and far better. You can learn compassion like Jesus or boldness like Peter. You can come to have a heart after God’s own heart like David, or trust in a God that seems mysterious yet good, like Ruth. You can form and lead communities of people who hold the virtue of compassion… like Junia. 

And so I contend that the Bible is better for its mythology. It has more authority because it is great literature. Imagine teaching children some giant rule book or some nonfiction description of God and the House of the World as opposed to story. They would fall asleep, pick their noses, or mess with the kid next to them! On the contrary, it is precisely the mythic elements, as Strabo argues, that entertain children so that they may be instructed. Myth is strikingly unexpected and exagerated and so it helps you learn. All the best teachers use story to entertain children into learning, and all the best adults have learned from stories of poets. This is why Homer uses fiction to instruct, and so do the writers of the Bible. The fact that the Bible is full of larger than life stories and miraculous wonders is the only reason flannel graph ever worked at all. Even your sunday school teacher could not make felling a giant with a sling and stone boring. I am sure she tried. 

WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH THE BIBLE…

Homer could not lie, just like the writers of the Bible could not lie. Strabo’s line of argument is what the Church fathers will run with. Augustine, Jerome, and the like will argue that since the Bible is divine, just like pagans believed Homer to be, that it cannot be wrong. Both the pagan and the Christian ideal of inerrancy placed the same impossible standard upon their respective texts. The reason Strabo has to maneuver between Homer never lying and Homer “lying but for good reason” in order to instruct… is that there are clearly impossible events and mistakes in Homer.

The same thing is going on in the Bible. Etiological myths, legends, fables, talking animals, anachronisms— the Hebrew Bible is problematic as an infallible document…because its authors were writing brilliant literature. They never meant to write scripture, let alone inspired or even inerrant scripture. They knew full-well they are writing literature, and the goal of these scribes was theological not chronological or historical. They want to record Israel’s unique encounter with Yahweh in a powerful and compelling way. And so they do the best way possible. They tell and retell story in the genres and custom of the ancient near East and Mediterranean World. 

But most importantly, they never understood themselves to be writing a sacred text. The scribes never meant to write scripture, let alone inspired or even inerrant scripture. They understood themselves to be compiling the great literary heritage of ancient Israel into books which would inspire the people of God to live out God’s character in the world. Some of the literature they compiled has fictitous, mythological elements. And yet, much of the literature they compiled rings true— there is a historical kernal dressed up as literature. 

At least to me, the Bible reads like humans trying to make sense of encounter with the divine which shocked and transfromed them. I like to say that the biblical text is a literaty whiplash to the event. The Iliad is whiplash to the Trojan Wars, the Bible is whiplash to a peculiar God adopting a slave people and placing them at the crossroads of civilization.

YOU CAN LET GO AND LEARN DEEPLY.

When you read the Bible, you can let go of silly arguments about whether the Bible has inconsistencies…because of course it does! You can let go of questions about whether God is depicted differently in different parts of the story…because of course God is! The books of the Bible are written by a lot of authors over a lot of time. No problem. And the scribes are using story to tell of God and his hand in history— they do not have any of the modern historical hang ups that we have. Instead, they want the story of God to move you. At the end of the day, the Bible does can teach or instruct you because it is great literature that tries to capture an unfathomably great God and a hope of what could be in our world.

So lose yourself in the story and character of God. Let go of literal questions and learn deeply from story— on the level of the soul. Yahweh will surprise you at every turn and He is the hero of the story, not Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. The way the ancient ones name the living God is shockingly big for their time and yet, compellingly personal and concerned with people just trying to do their best to enter relationship with him. This is because they are naming something bigger than us, better than us, and somehow longing for us. Homer is not the original philosopher and neither is Moses. God is the author of the cosmos and the wisdom which every corner or creation displays. And so any attempt to name the Great Author in literature will appear at times like a peasant speaking of the High King. 

So I commend starting by loving the Bible again instead of starting by defining it as any theological adjective. Let it be story that helps you name the living God written by scribes trying to answer the same kinds of questions you are. Start with human literature, and you will end up somewhere heavenly because that is what the best stories do. All the more stories about God.

THE BEST STORIES CHANGE YOU.

The best stories have probably changed you more than facts. Your favorite songs, movies, books, and podcasts matter to you so much because of the great gift of story. And the reason you love them is not because they give you objective facts, it is actually because they are true in a different, more sublime way. You see sometimes fiction tells the truth better. So it is with the Biblical tradition and all great faith traditions. Let us ask a common question of the rabbis: To what may this be compared?

There was a king of flesh and blood. He entered a foreign land and he said to the people there, “Let me be your King.” The people looked at the King on his war horse and asked him, “Why? Why should we make you our king.” So the king went away for a month, and he came back with an army and a great mass of men. But with the army he drove out the enemies of the land and with the men, he fixed the broken bridges in the land, and he built a strong wall around the cities for protection, and he fed the hungry, and he provided for the poor, and he clothed the naked, and he strengthened the weak.” And then he asked the people of the land again, “Let me be your King?” “Yes!” the people said, “You will be our king and we will be your servants. We will do as you say.”

So it is with the Bible. It is the story of a God who generously gives to the people of his world. The Bible, like many faith traditions, seeks to name the divine accurately and eloquently. If you are daring enough to enter this literature you will simply not come out the same and you will encounter language to God that can move you from skepticism and anxiety to trust and shalom. From “why on earth should I make you my king?” to “You will be my king and I will be your servant. I will do as you say.”