Armed with our sensibility about the ways cultural memory and context knowledge build, we turn to a central sign in the Jewish and Christian tradition, the Exodus from Egypt re-performed annually in the Passover ritual. We'll be doing three things today. First, we'll explore what the Exodus and passover traditions are. Second, we'll consider the religious phenomenon of ritual practice. Third, we'll make our first foray into the multimodal re-presentations of the Bible, through cartoon illustration and film today, but other modes in future classes (gesture, music, illumination). This should help you pick your topic and modes for the third and final texting God paper.
Read Exodus 1-17 in The Action Bible, and then read the account of the final plague and the Passover ritual in the NRSV (Exodus 11–13)
Be able to summarize the plot of Exodus 1–17 from The Action Bible.
After reading Exodus 11–13 closely in the NRSV, analyze the choices Cariello made in re-presenting the story. Please write out your answers to that question and bring them with you to class.
Today's reading in Knight and Levine introduces you to the performance of the sacred in the cult. As you read their chapter, be able to:
Compare Freud's definition of ritual practices to Knight and Levine's. What nine things do Knight and Levine think religious rituals do for people? Consider one example of an activity you customarily or occasionally do that performs some of these same functions for you.
What roles did temples perform in ancient societies?
The Knight and Levine chapter indicates some of the things you might look for whenever you participate in a ritual at a synagogue or church. In addition to being alert to the things rituals do for people (question 3) and the role of the sacred space itself (question 4), note the other features of ritual that they describe, you can consider the following aspects of ritual behavior and space:
officiants (priests or ministers: who is allowed to do this, how is someone authorized, what roles do they alone perform, etc.);
purity mapped on to space (temple), bodies (sexual activity, life and death, diet), activities (ethics) and times (holidays, agricultural calendars);
whether the "meme" of animal sacrifice is picked up in any way in the gestures or language of the ritual;
the modes through which meaning is communicated (image, word, gesture, music);
the codes or conventions from the tradition that are deployed in the ritual to concretize the identity of the community through cultural memory
Assigned Readings
Primary: Exodus 1–17 (Action Bible 112-152)
Secondary: Knight & Levine, The Meaning of the Bible chapter 6; online class prep
Video Clip: Exodus: Gods and Kings (Dir. Ridley Scott, 2014)
Douglas Knight is the Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Hebrew Bible Emeritus and retired Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderilt University Divinity School in Tenessee.
Amy-Jill Levine is the University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Profesor of New Testament Studies, and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderilt University Divinity School in Tenessee. She is a specialist in the Christian Gospel of Matthew and in feminist studies, and is an Orthodox Jew. She will also be our guide through the parables of Jesus when we turn to the New Testament.
Sergio Cariello is a Brazilian-American comic book artist. He's published with major comic book publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and recently has been penciling and inking "The Lone Ranger" for Dynamite Entertainment" and the "Son of Samson" series for Christian publisher Zondervan.
Ridley Scott directed the 2014 movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings, along with classics such as Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Thelma and Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), and American Gangster (2007).
Wright, Melanie Jane. "Moses at the Movies: Ninety Years of the Bible and Film." Modern Believing 37:4 (1996) 46-54.
Film & Video
The Visual Effects of Parting the Red Sea over the Years - An overview of special effects techniques and technologies applied to the story in Exodus (2007).
Armed with our sensibility about the ways cultural memory and context knowledge build, we turn to a central sign in the Jewish and Christian tradition, the Exodus from Egypt re-performed annually in the Passover ritual. We'll be doing three things today. First, we'll explore what the Exodus and passover traditions are. Second, we'll consider the religious phenomenon of ritual practice. Third, we'll make our first foray into the multimodal re-presentations of the Bible, through cartoon illustration and film today, but other modes in future classes (gesture, music, illumination). This should help you pick your topic and modes for the third and final texting God paper.
