Post 222 | Dissection

The dissection of words is one of my least favorite things to do. Ever. And lo and behold I have to write an entire ten page paper dissecting the words and phrases in one small passage of the Bible. It's called an exegesis and it is one of the worst assignments I have had to do over my past two and a half years at college.

I believe the problem with dissecting written material like this is something that was never meant to be done. I do not think authors write down anything expecting someone to pick it apart sentence by sentence or word by word. It honestly seems like a colossal waste of time to me. Someone wrote something because they wanted to. They wanted to get a simple and clear meaning across, and not use certain words because they used them three chapters ago or anything.

Especially the writers of the Bible. There may be some authors out there like that trying to fit in hidden meaning into their books, but I do not think any of the writers of the Bible had any intention of doing that.

I am "exegeting" the passage 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24. Needless to say I am not wild about the Bible being separated like this in the first place, but let's keep moving. The passage basically tells the Thessalonians to care for those who are wandering away from the path of God, be joyful, care for others, don't be sucked in by evil and may God bless you. See right there, that is what it says. But, with this paper I have to take it line by line, verse by verse and explain every little nuance.

I. Hate. It.

I am no theology major, I have no interest in reading four different commentaries on this one passage that all say the same exat thing about it. I am a communications major. Let me talk about the media or something and I will be happy! For example, I am doing a research paper on the ethics in video games. How awesome is that? I do not like my ethics class much but this is something I am at least interested in.

I do not think that dissecting a passage like this is in any way beneficial to us in this class. In fact I do not even think it would help anyone in their faith for that matter.

William Shakespeare did not mean for every one of his proses or lines to be taken out of context and dissected for their meaning, I don't think the writers of the Bible, or most books for that matter, want it done either.

My rough belief in God is shaky enough as it is, putting something like this in front of me and acting like it is beneficial to my faith in any way pushes me farther away from being interested in what the Bible says. Let me read it in my own way and take away from it want I want to take from it, not what ten other sources says it says.

That is my rant of the day. Now I have to write seven more pages by Monday of next week if I do not want to worry about it over Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading. 

P.S. I am participating in National Novel Writing Month so a lot of my writing effort is going there right now. Here are my stats if you are at all interested.