Chapter 2 — Mystical Reading of ANE Literature
A critical part of mysticism is teaching the mind to serve, not lead. While we don’t have too many ANE words that can be translated as “intuition,” it’s clearly one of the tools they used. In this context, intuition can be described as the lowest level of mystical wisdom. Western psychology regards it as some native ability to see patterns without a full consciousness of the processing. When it works, you are able to jump across a lot of logical steps and still get the right answer. It’s not just intellect, but above it; it’s the upper end of what we might call “instinct.” To a mystic, this is probably the bottom end of divine wisdom, in that it teaches the mind to trust something it cannot control. That’s the real meaning behind “faith” — a commitment and reliance on things beyond yourself. Faith will often make demands that are eminently unreasonable from a human level of thinking.
A particular problem with reading Scripture from a Western point of view is the complete absence of something ANE writers took for granted in written communications. A significant portion of ANE literature is invocational. There is a very solid purpose for inviting some divine presence to participate in reading and processing the written material. The Western reflex is to see this as simply giving credit to the deity; to the ANE mind it is a request for a very literal divine assistance for the reader. They took that request seriously.
A great deal of Scripture is invocational, though sometimes not obviously so; it is typically implied. The invocation is followed by written material which is quite obscure to the Western approach. The words translate into one kind of statement, when the author would have been implying something far larger. It’s not simply passing references with abbreviated terminology or figures of speech, but an expectation God Himself will cause the reader to discover something far larger than what is contained in the words themselves. Context is everything; there are constraints. It’s not as if we are describing a boundless free association that makes no sense at all. The wider body of Hebrew Scripture presumes you already know certain things cannot come out of this mystical approach to reading. You are supposed to apply the moral imperatives to your thinking first as the frame of reference. Sin is still sin and some things can be bluntly stated as always wrong in all contexts. However, a great deal of Hebrew divine wisdom is cultivated by choosing to say one thing when the context indicates it’s really something much bigger. Often it’s an attempt to teach the reader to think differently, posing a common question and showing that it’s the wrong question and the wrong approach.
A concrete example is in Ecclesiastes. The purpose of the book is a training manual for palace staff and the wider royal bureaucracy. It was included in the canon because the lessons apply by extension to life in general. When you understand what Solomon says about serving in his courts, you understand what Solomon thinks it means to serve God. A common theme never directly stated, but consistently present in the meaning of the text is the warning to discard all ambition, a persistent sin of human nature. It’s not enough to recognize when he uses sarcasm to mock those entirely too reliant on human reasoning, as if they idolize his famous gift. He also demands a contemplative mindset when reading.
More than once Solomon mentions the work God has given men to do on the earth, describing it in terms of futility. To the reader who is studying for a job in Solomon’s administration, usually signals the question, “Why do you think I hired you? Is this task pointless in your eyes?” Then Solomon proceeds to answer the question quite obliquely. He’s raising an issue with far more implication than the simple question itself. He talks about how one could get fired, for example. The reader is presumed wise enough to recognize these oblique references. It’s not a string of disconnected thoughts, placed in some random order. Context is everything. If the reader doesn’t make the connection, he’ll obviously make serious mistakes and get fired because he’s not smart enough. If the new hire lacks even intuition as a tool of reasoning, he’ll fail, because real success in the king’s service has nothing to do with ambition. It has to do with placing human wisdom at the service of something outside the intellect and clinging to the underlying ethic of serving the king as if serving God Himself.
Readers can discover the same sort of indirect replies common to Hebrew people in Job, parts of Proverbs and some Psalms. To Western minds, there is a jarring disconnect, but to Hebrew thinkers, you aren’t taking enough time to consider what it all means.
