Chapter 7
THE SACRED WRITER
To understand it better, I would like to refer to how the Catholic Church deals with the idea of the sacred writer, the writer who captures what he understands to be the word of God.
When we say that the texts are words of God, one could imagine that God has dictated the phrases that he wanted to reach readers in the author´s ear; that´s how represented the authors of the sacred books are usually represented in many of the paintings seen in the churches. However, the phenomenon is much more complex. This phenomenon is called inspiration. But this inspiration should not be understood in the same way that a musician is inspired to create a work, but as the discrete action of God deep inside the sacred writer. This inspiration respects, as it were, the humanity of the author, his culture, his inclinations, his tastes, his writing, as Luis Heriberto Rivas explains in his book "The books and the history of the Bible. Introduction to Holy Scripture." [11].
That is why it can be noted that the various books of the Bible have distinctly different styles.
This is precisely because the hagiographer (such is the name given to the sacred author) is fully involved in what God commanded him to write.
"Thus, when one asks about the author of the Bible, one must take into account this double dimension: in the one hand, the author is God who inspires, on the other, it is the hagiographer who does as best as he can godly task"(Sic. Luis Heriberto Rivas. Editorial San Benito. 2008) [12].
I think this paragraph can elucidate the mechanism -some might say-, by which God´s information reaches first the writer and then the reader of the sacred text. But anyway, it is still hard to imagine.
So I've written this fictional account with the mere intention of allowing the reader stand, if only for a moment, in the place of our famous observer.
It is important to clarify that the following story is pure fiction and that nowhere in the Bible is it specified that it happened this way.
11 - Rivas, Luis Heriberto, Los libros y la historia de la Biblia. Introducción a las Sagradas Escrituras. Editorial San Benito. 2008.
12 – Idem.
Next...
Chapter 8
THE OBSERVER
Contemplating creation
Fictional account that can help you understand
the way some people have received God´s visions
and revelations.
Mesopotamia
Semitic Village
1000 B.C.
He was slowly regaining control, his control, control of himself, while he became aware of what had happened.
His legs trembled; his mind was a chaos of questions that demanded answers.
What did I see? What happened to me? Did I have a hallucination? Where am I? The sheep?! How long..? He thought, desperate and greatly confused.
He looked around.
The sheep! There they are!
Thank God, thank God they have not escaped!
Is it still dawn or dusk?
The day was ending and there was little light, he saw that the sun was setting but he was still confused.
His legs did not supported him He fell to his knees, leaned his hands on the floor.
I must come back home, I must come back home and tell everyone what happened to me.
The images he had seen returned to his mind as fast memories. Have I dreamed? He tried to focus on what was important at the time. I must go home, back to my family, safe and with the flock.
He had noticed it was getting dark. He took his crook and the fur that kept him warm. I'm starving, my stomach hurts from hunger–he had not eaten since leaving home that morning, and the day was over. Water, water, I need to drink.
He ran to the creek that was a few meters away, and squatted. He took great gulps as if they were the last and felt better. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he stood. He was exhausted as if he'd run a race.
He was slowly beginning to relax.
Everything seemed in order. He gathered the sheep and drove them to the hut where he lived.
He arrived an hour later, hurrying under the moonlight.
He locked them in the pen.
Elam had a wife, Misur, and two children, a boy of eight and a girl of six.
Upon hearing the sheep enter the pen the children ran to greet their father. In the dark, they hugged him and Elam lifted Samud, the girl, and grabbed the oldest, Urkis´, hand...
