Well, here we are, the home stretch. The rest of these 'books' are actually just letters, except for Revelations. Sooo, yeah. Let's do this.
All of Paul's letters start with "The Letter of Paul to X", or "The Second Letter of Paul to X" or what have you, but Hebrews is just "The Letter to the Hebrews". From whom?
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it" Hebrews 13:2.
"Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured" Hebrews 13:3. / "As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I'm of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free"--Eugene Debs
The Letter of James:
"Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field" James 1:9-10.
"No one, when tempted, should say, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one... One is tempted by one's own desire" James 1:13-14.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" James 1:27.
"But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you?" James 2:6.
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?" James 2:14-16.
"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder" James 1:19.
I don't have any notes for either 1 Peter or 2 Peter.
The First Letter of John:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" 1 John 1:8.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away" 1 John 2:15-17.
"God is love" 1 John 4:8.
I don't have notes for John's second or third letters, nor do I have notes for Jude's letters.
...Buuuut I do have a note or two in Revelation. (Though I could have sworn that it's Revelations, but okay, fine.)
My first note is that this is where our picture of the apocalypse comes from. The final judgment, the raising of the dead, the four horsemen--! That was fun, it brought me right back to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, a book that was torturous enough to read that it actually felt like you were suffering the blows dealt by the four horsemen and the seven angels' horns. But seriously, when they were describing the four horsemen, I was just expecting one of them to be introduced as Ras the Exhorter. Bad times with that book. Awful times. Yet not the worst.
What confused me is that John talks about these seven angels with their horns--every time one blows their horn, something terrible happens. When angel number five blows his horn, John "saw that a star had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit; he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft" Revelation 9:1-2. So one would automatically assume it's Lucifer/Satan (come to think of it, Satan is never once referred to as Lucifer in the Bible--), no? But that doesn't make sense, because those events would have happened pre-Eden, not during the end of times... Right? Or maybe it's supposed to be a metaphor. Or maybe John is seeing an illusion that is playing up to Satan releasing hell's contents to the world...?
It's also implied that none of the 144,000 who go to heaven forever are women. That's fun.
Oh, and might I add--the 'number of the beast'? We normally think of it as 666, but according to the footnote, depending on your translation/edition of the ancient writings, it could be 616. I had a dream once that it was 521.
Also, demons and devils preparing to ransack the world during the end of times gather in a place that is called 'Harmagedon' in Hebrew. Gee, wonder what word that sounds like...
"And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them" Revelation 9:6.
Other than that, there are a few errant notes here and there relating to the final Chronicles of Narnia book, The Last Battle--but of course there'd be similarities between this and that.
MLA citation information: Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Edition. American Bible Society: New York, 1989.
So, I'm sure you're hankering for a big reaction to everything, the old and new testament, to have some major religious revelation or what have you...
As for me myself, I had some insight--but it didn't do nearly as much for me as, say, Everything is Illuminated. There are clearly some things that have touched me, but it didn't quite do it. My views spiritually--well, some found backing here, and some were not satisfied. I don't know them that well myself, yet, they're still for the most part unformed. Or maybe it's not quite that, it's just hard to verbalize them. Anyways, like I said--some things boded and some didn't. I tried to remain objective when I read this, but there are many moments when I clearly did not do so. Well, these things happen.
You may be wondering if this will be going on the 'Classics' shelf. I'm not sure yet.
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics: Elephant Love Medley from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack
This post's cryptic song lyrics: The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast, the slow one now will later be fast, as the present now will later be past, the order is rapidly fading, and the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changing
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