Phyllis Trible, in appreciation and gratitude
Phyllis Trible was one of the great lights of 20th century Biblical criticism. She, with many others, moved the field to pay attention to marginalized voices in text and tradition. I can think of none whose work has been more influential in this project. Dr. Trible saw, heard, and re-membered these textual women, named or not, who represent uncounted others who are authentically part of God's story in the Bible and in the communities which profess to follow this Word. She grabbed hold of these texts, and would not let go until they blessed her, and others.
In the late 1990s I planned to leave my job on Wall Street for Seminary. Phyllis Trible was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Union Theological Seminary, when I discovered that she had announced her retirement before I thought I could reasonably leave my job.
So I arranged to take vacation time that semester, taking a each week to travel uptown for a seminar on Genesis 1-11. Ki tov! How good!
That class may have been the pinnacle of my academic achievement in biblical scholarship, when I received my final assignment with the comment "Exceeds every expectation!" I took this as High Praise because I know it would not be given otherwise, even if it also might have meant the expectation did not start out very high.
The seminar did not nearly cover the first 11 chapters of Genesis. We never got past the end of chapter 3, something I discovered today was common to other of her Genesis seminars. She did like to savor and explore these texts which carry so much. Today I wish to remember especially two things.
True to her attention to rhetoric, she began the first class dramatically.
If I was to be standed on a desert Island and could only take one book, of course it would be the Bible. And if I could take only one Testament, it would be the Old, the Hebrew Bible. And if in that Testament I could only have book, it would beבְּרֵאשִׁית , Genesis, Beginnings. And if I could only have one chapter, it would be the first.
She went on to say how this chapter was still fresh and rewarding, she could read it in different seasons and see new things, and still wonder at the craft of its language and its bold vision of God and God's creative action in shaping our world.
This points to the more important thing I learned from Professor Doctor Trible. That I would be well served to treat the texts as sacred. Less because of what might be intrinsic in the words, but in how they have been shaped, used, and abused, to bless and to oppress, and we pray, to heal, to liberate, and to give joy. The texts come to us charged with meaning from their authors, editors, interpreters, and communities of practice, and from the many uses to which they have been put over the years.
We can best approach these texts with integrity if we give them respect, if we consider them carefully, prayerfully, and yes, with love. We don't have to love Texts of Terror, but that we have to bring the love in our life, including the love of God, to our study and proclamation.
Thank you, Professor Doctor Tribble, for being that kind of light in my life. Your memory is a blessing.
Paul Bellan-Boyer, MDiv, 2002
P.S. Today (December 13) was the day of her memorial service at James Chapel, at the school where she studied, taught, and lived for so much of her life. I learned that she loved whales, the real world Leviathans which the Hebrew Bible deployed to indicate the hidden power of God in the deep places of creation, and in legend that hidden place where the Prophet Jonah turned to his God. The chapel was filled with some of the 200 whales she left behind, one last gift of imagination and wonder.
Credits:
Jonah and the Whale, pastel, Polly Castor 2021.
So I arranged to take vacation time that semester, taking a each week to travel uptown for a seminar on Genesis 1-11. Ki tov! How good!
That class may have been the pinnacle of my academic achievement in biblical scholarship, when I received my final assignment with the comment "Exceeds every expectation!" I took this as High Praise because I know it would not be given otherwise, even if it also might have meant the expectation did not start out very high.
The seminar did not nearly cover the first 11 chapters of Genesis. We never got past the end of chapter 3, something I discovered today was common to other of her Genesis seminars. She did like to savor and explore these texts which carry so much. Today I wish to remember especially two things.
True to her attention to rhetoric, she began the first class dramatically.
If I was to be standed on a desert Island and could only take one book, of course it would be the Bible. And if I could take only one Testament, it would be the Old, the Hebrew Bible. And if in that Testament I could only have book, it would be
She went on to say how this chapter was still fresh and rewarding, she could read it in different seasons and see new things, and still wonder at the craft of its language and its bold vision of God and God's creative action in shaping our world.
This points to the more important thing I learned from Professor Doctor Trible. That I would be well served to treat the texts as sacred. Less because of what might be intrinsic in the words, but in how they have been shaped, used, and abused, to bless and to oppress, and we pray, to heal, to liberate, and to give joy. The texts come to us charged with meaning from their authors, editors, interpreters, and communities of practice, and from the many uses to which they have been put over the years.
We can best approach these texts with integrity if we give them respect, if we consider them carefully, prayerfully, and yes, with love. We don't have to love Texts of Terror, but that we have to bring the love in our life, including the love of God, to our study and proclamation.
Thank you, Professor Doctor Tribble, for being that kind of light in my life. Your memory is a blessing.
Paul Bellan-Boyer, MDiv, 2002
P.S. Today (December 13) was the day of her memorial service at James Chapel, at the school where she studied, taught, and lived for so much of her life. I learned that she loved whales, the real world Leviathans which the Hebrew Bible deployed to indicate the hidden power of God in the deep places of creation, and in legend that hidden place where the Prophet Jonah turned to his God. The chapel was filled with some of the 200 whales she left behind, one last gift of imagination and wonder.
Credits:
Jonah and the Whale, pastel, Polly Castor 2021.
Comments