Ancient text

Many churches, with their babytalk modern services, Ladybird Bibles, trite preaching and kindergarten happy-clappy music, seem designed to drive away any thoughtful person. 

Peter Hitchens, in Daily Mail

Progressive Christians love nothing more than new exegesis and new hermeneutics. It serves them well to conclude that there have been thousands of years of penurious Biblical scholarship. “Only we can understand this ancient text” they say. It is a form of academic snobbery – that interpretations that come last, land best. As a result, none of the progressives have in recent years published anything that holds its worth against the poorest of writings of Tozer, Edwards, Spurgeon and C.S. Lewis.

Which brings us to the Perth Anglican Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy offering the novelty of interpretation of Exodus 15. Goldsworthy shared the novelty in Sydney. Goldsworthy was in Sydney to celebrate 40 years of Movement for the Ordination of Women. Where other visiting Archbishops may perhaps be given the pulpit of the Anglican Cathedral, Goldsworthy secured a spot at Christ Church St Laurence – a Anglo-Catholic parish church a cooee yell distant from the Cathedral.

Goldsworthy on Exodus 15 is proof alone of the need for continuity of male-only preaching. If Goldsworthy had introduced her Exodus 15 novelty into a formal debate on the “Worth of Women Preaching” the opposing side would rest their case. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, who gave permission for Goldsworthy to speak at Christ Church, perhaps slyly reckoned that he need only offer enough rope.

So, to Goldsworthy on Exodus 15. Here is the part of Goldsworthy’s sermon that requires attention. It is copied from the transcript that Youtube usefully offers. I’ve emphasised the part of the text that piqued my interest. You can view the whole sermon on this link.

“Our reading stopped at the end of chapter 14, so we missed the opening verses of chapter 15 which English Bibles head the “song of Moses” after God's people land on the other side of the Red Sea. It's worth noting, and it may not be surprising, that the song of Moses is placed ahead of a more ancient text the song of Miriam. The song of Miriam is one of the very ancient texts of the Hebrew scriptures and appears a few verses on in chapter 15 at verse 20. It has Miriam taking a tambourine in her hand and all the women going out after her with tambourines and with dancing.”

The novelty is in the suggestion that the song of Miriam is “a more ancient text” than the song of Moses. That is a novelty in that Biblical scholars find both songs to be ancient text – older than the chapters either side of it – as measured of the age of the Hebraic language. Plausibly, the author of Exodus chose to deposit the songs in their original form directly into the book. Miriam’s song – which is possibly truncated – is effectively a repeat of the first stanza of the song of Moses.

A sketch that was included on Sydney Morning Herald's letter page 17 September 2023,
titled: "Arch Rivalry", by Simon Ketch

Goldsworthy assigns Miriam’s song prominence that it does not have. Putting Miriam’s song ahead of the song of Moses (the feminine voice is put ahead of the male) may have tickled the day's audience yet would not survive scrutiny of Moore Theological College.

The new exegesis, the new hermeneutic, merits no attention in Sydney.

Shalom,

Ozhamada