U2’s video for “Window in the Skies” is here, and it’s a whole lot of fun. Hint: Watch the magical lip-synching as the various singers flash by. Man… this must have taken some work. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)U2 Window in the Skies Related The Most Meaningful Movie Moments You've Ever Seen"Shut Up and Sing": Opus Cheers for the Chicks.
That’s only the first of two videos. The other one involves a bunch of still photographs that have been manipulated to appear in 3-D.
Name the ten commandments.
Hmmm, not as simple a command as you might think — there are two or three versions of the Decalogue in the Torah (in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, and possibly Exodus 34), and the various religious traditions have different ways of dividing the Decalogue. Hence, e.g., the Second Commandment in Judaism is “You shall have no other gods but me,” and in Catholicism it is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” and in Protestantism it is “You shall not make any graven images.”
Okay, now name the twelve disciples.
I believe the gospels have slightly different lists here, too — which is not to say that they list different people, but they do list different names.
How about the Beatitudes?
Bizarrely enough, I never have any trouble singing them in church every week, but I don’t know that I could sing them on my own!
You just *love* stirring up trouble, don’t you? 😉
It’s a bit of a flimsy way to introduce the subject of Biblical literacy, I’ll admit. Especially since the best kind of Biblical literacy has little to do with “Are you an expert on the details of the Bible?” and more to do with “Are you meditating on it, to see what God reveals?”
Name the ten commandments.
This is a major aspect of traditional Catholic catechesis. My six-year-old son can name them in order and identify them by number.
As for the variant traditional enumerations Peter mentions, my two older kids (9 and 12) can elaborate the differences between the traditional Catholic, Protestant and Jewish enumerations… and give reasons in favor of the Catholic enumeration. 🙂 (This is not traditional catechesis, but I cover in the classes I teach at church, so they’ve heard it all.)
Okay, now name the twelve disciples.
Here, too, my three older kids would have no trouble — though rather than drawing on Catholic catechesis, they would have recourse to a little song most familiar to Evangelicals! (“There were 12 disciples Jesus called to help him….”) They would do the same in rattling off the 27 books of the NT. (Neither they nor I could run through the 46 books of the OT.)
How about the Beatitudes?
Here I don’t know how well my kids would do. I envy Peter his Church’s tradition of singing them every week! I know I can say them, though I might make a mistake or two.
It’s a bit of a flimsy way to introduce the subject of Biblical literacy, I’ll admit. Especially since the best kind of Biblical literacy has little to do with “Are you an expert on the details of the Bible?” and more to do with “Are you meditating on it, to see what God reveals?”
Well, I don’t know. Meditating on the Bible is certainly a more important question, but literacy does seem to me to have to do with basic familiarity with the contents and character of the material.
I went to Bible college. So I’m more literate than most laymen. And I also knew about the difficulty in nailing down the Ten Commandemnts and the Twelve Apostles.
I taught at a Bible college for three years. It was not uncommon for my students–mainly freshmen–not to know a simple chronology of Christ’s life. One of my colleagues ran into trouble when he asked students to defend theological principles using Scripture rather than teacher notes. And that was with upper classmen.
This is a major aspect of traditional Catholic catechesis. My six-year-old son can name them in order and identify them by number.
I was in junior high school when a guy spoke on memory aides at one of our assemblies and handed out a set of cartoons, each of which was designed to help us remember one of the commandments. And I have to say, the cartoon has stuck with me ever since.
So not only can I name the ten commandments, I can also tell you which commandment is the 2nd or 9th or whatever, without reciting them in order — as per the Protestant enumeration, of course, this being a Protestant school that I was attending at the time.
E.g., with the 9th commandment, the number “9” was turned into a balloon and a string, and a bear was hanging onto it and floating up a tree (a la Winnie the Pooh) and doing something to a bird’s nest, hence… “Thou shalt not BEAR false WET-NEST (i.e. WITNESS).”
The 5th commandment was illustrated by a 5-pointed star which children made at school and gave to their parents, kind of like sheriffs’ badges, hence… “Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother.”
The 3rd commandment was a tricycle that somebody was riding into a garage with a weather vane on top, and the word “God” was attached to the tricycle, hence… “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in VANE (i.e. VAIN).”
The 8th commandment was a snowman, and a rabbit was running away with its carrot-nose, hence… “Thou shalt not steal.”
The 6th commandment was an elephant’s trunk, crushing a man, hence… “Thou shalt not kill.”
And so on.
It’s goofy, I know, but hey, it obviously worked!
And FWIW, my first exposure to the Catholic enumeration was when I watched Kieslowski’s Dekalog series and wondered why “Thou Shalt not kill” was now #5 instead of #6, etc.
Great stuff, Jeffrey. I’m more “Biblically literate” than most, with a Minor in Bible from a Christian college, but I’ve definitely seen knowledge of the Bible going steadily downhill. A few months ago, one of our youth teachers discovered two girls in his class that had no idea who “the Israelites” were.
Gotta pick at you for this line, though: “The Bible is one of the most extraordinary books ever written” ONE of?
Jeff, as a campus pastor I have been shocked and amazed at this issue for many years, thanks for the heads -up on the response articles. I will check them out and use them in my fight to keep us from the neo dark ages.