comments on the "mere comment"

One of the more interesting comments following "Mere Comment" The Gospel of Mark (Driscoll) & His Critics by Justin D. Barnard. The comment below is NOT part of J.D. Barnard's text, it is a comment by BENIGHTED SAVAGE following a host of other comments (page down).

POSTED BY: BENIGHTED SAVAGE | JUN 29, 2009 8:19:45 PM

First, I have read Driscoll's sermon on the Song of Solomon delivered in Scotland and have read some of his other writings which included his views on what are appropriate sexual acts between married couples. Put simply, what Driscoll teaches as acceptable and, indeed, commanded by our Lord is nothing else than sodomy as that term as been understood by the Church universal throughout the two millennia of our Faith. Indeed, all traditions, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox, so held until the 20th century. The acts which he declares that God commands wives to perform or allowed to be performed on them were crimes in many states of the United States as late as the last century. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing and following his teaching is extremely dangerous.

Second, in teaching that God commands women to perform sodomitic acts on their husbands, he is using God's Word to demand women to commit acts which many of them might find demeaning or even abusive. He perverts the teaching that wives must submit to their husbands to demand that they must submit to committing acts of sodomy and to be victims of such acts.

Third, in ridiculing the traditional interpretation of the Song of Solomon as being a metaphor of Christ and His Church, he resorts to words which I find blasphemous. ... [snip - blasphemy deleted] ...

Flee from this man and his false teachings.

I am not a church historian. I would be interested in any sort of substantive discussion of the points made above concerning Church teaching and traditions prior to the 20th century.

the critique is getting better ...

The Touchstone "Mere Comment" The Gospel of Mark (Driscoll) & His Critics by Justin D. Barnard June 29, 2009 is certainly one the better readings of Driscoll's exegetical travesty on the Song of Songs.

I am glad to see some people probing a little deeper in the analysis of what is wrong with the guy in Ballard. I wonder if some philosophy professor might do a short piece on Driscoll's pragmatism, perhaps a comparison with Albert Finney.

the last shall be first ...

Just when you thought nothing more worth reading could be said about the guy in Ballard's teaching on Song of Songs up comes a late blooming flower of wisdom written by David Hegg.

Here is a quote:

For any interested in my take, here it is: My biggest problem is with Driscoll's exegesis of Song of Solomon. He makes the text say stuff that the author doesn't say. The book is filled with mystery and nuance, but Driscoll insists that the author is speaking in graphic terms. What the book describes with art and beauty and literary restraint, Driscoll describes in undressed language. He simply does not teach the book the way it was written.

Secondly, I too agree that Driscoll's method of communication was simply wrong. One of the necessities in biblical preaching is to fit the means of communication to the message being communicated. As I tried to explain in a previous post (Nobility, Approachability, and the Vitality of Truth), MacLuhan was correct in challenging us to understand that "the medium is the message." By choosing the low road in terms of language in order to be what he considers "real", Driscoll has actually drained the nobility, mystery, and sanctity out of marital intimacy in the Biblical book (Song of Solomon) where marital intimacy is most nobly, honorably, and reverently described.

case and cohesion in Ajax

The first five lines of the chorus in Ajax (Sophocles) that begins on line 221 is made more cohesive by a string of feminine singular accusatives which are all tied to ἀγγελίαν (report). Two adjectives, ἄτλατον and φευκτάν, a participle κλῃζομέναν and an article τὰν functioning as a relative pronoun, all look back to ἀγγελίαν.

{ΧΟ.} Οἵαν ἐδήλωσας
ἀνέρος αἴθονος ἀγγελίαν
ἄτλατον οὐδὲ φευκτάν,
τῶν μεγάλων Δαναῶν ὕπο κλῃζομέναν,
τὰν ὁ μέγας μῦθος ἀέξει.
Ὤιμοι φοβοῦμαι τὸ προσέρπον· περίφαντος ἁνὴρ
θανεῖται, παραπλήκτῳ χερὶ συγκατακτὰς
κελαινοῖς ξίφεσιν βοτὰ καὶ βοτῆρας ἱππονώμας.

Sophocles Trag., Ajax 221-231