digging deeper

I have a Masters degree in B.S.

I suspect whoever named the program "Biblical Studies" had a wicked sense of humour.

Why not "Biblical Literature and Theology" (BLT)? (Athough people might assume we're crusty.) Or "Biblical Origins of Factual Faith Orthodoxy" (BOFFO)?

At least they didn't call it "Biblical Ministry."

While I admit I did my share of "shovelling" to bring term papers up to word length, B.S. is a completely inaccurate title for what I discovered.

I learned that the Bible is a collection of poems, letters and stories written in three languages by hundreds of people (all of them messed up humans like me) over thousands of years in several different nations. Yet they're all about the same God, a God unlike any found in other ancient religious writings.

One of the most interesting things I studied was Ugaritic, the language of Baal stories found at an archaeological dig in Ras Shamra, Syria. In Baal religion, the gods were selfish, horny, and pretty whimpy. Baal worshippers had to perform annual parades, multiple sacrifices and sexual rituals in hopes that Baal would be able to keep all of creation from falling apart.

Not that Baal cared either way. People were just his pawns. He would never sacrifice anything for his creatures.

The God of the Bible created people for the sole purpose of loving them and sacrificed his own Son to save them. Makes me think the Bible was created by someone and about someone with a little more imagination than the rest of us.

I know I will never "master" the Bible, but that kind of God makes me want to keep digging.