KK: The Story, as Best I Can

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Charles Wilson
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Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:13 am

Re: KK: The Story, as Best I Can

Post by Charles Wilson »

Mark. Summary.

"[Billy Pilgrim] was down in the meat locker on the night that Dresden was destroyed. There were sounds like giant footsteps above. Those were sticks of high-explosive bombs. The giants walked and walked. The meat locker was a very safe shelter. All that happened down there was an occaisional shower of calcimine. The Americans and four of their guards and a few dressed carcasses were down there, and nobody else. The rest of the guards had, before the raid began, gone to the comforts of their own homes in Dresden. They were all being killed with their families.

"So it goes.

"The girls that Billy had seen naked were all being killed, too, in a much shallower shelter in another part of the stockyards,

"So it goes."

Josephus, Antiquities..., 17, 9, 3:

"And as Archelaus was afraid lest some terrible thing should spring up by means of these men's madness, he sent a regiment of armed men, and with them a captain of a thousand, to suppress the violent efforts of the seditious before the whole multitude should be infected with the like madness; and gave them this charge, that if they found any much more openly seditious than others, and more busy in tumultuous practices, they should bring them to him. But those that were seditious on account of those teachers of the law, irritated the people by the noise and clamors they used to encourage the people in their designs; so they made an assault upon the soldiers, and came up to them, and stoned the greatest part of them, although some of them ran away wounded, and their captain among them; and when they had thus done, they returned to the sacrifices which were already in their hands. Now Archelaus thought there was no way to preserve the entire government but by cutting off those who made this attempt upon it; so he sent out the whole army upon them, and sent the horsemen to prevent those that had their tents without the temple from assisting those that were within the temple, and to kill such as ran away from the footmen when they thought themselves out of danger; which horsemen slew three thousand men, while the rest went to the neighboring mountains. Then did Archelaus order proclamation to be made to them all, that they should retire to their own homes..."

The Book of Mark is a Literary Construction. It was built from various pieces and the pieces are identifiable as such. One of those Pieces was a Story of a Priest who was saved by a child at the Death of the 3000. They both return to Jerusalem 12 years later, exactly 2 complete Cycles of the Priestly Rotations of Mishmarot. The Priest has been convinced by Jairus that he should make one last attempt to call on the Glory of God. He is captured and Crucified and on the cross, he screams, "For this was I saved?" The child, Peter, now a Priest himself, goes back to the Priesthood, to finish his days. He has no understanding of what has happened to him. Thousands died around him and he lived:

Ecclesiastes2: 18 - 23 (RSV):

[18] I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;
[19] and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
[20] So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
[21] because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
[22] What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
[23] For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.

You might wonder why I put the paragraph from Slaughterhouse Five about the girls who were killed in the Dresden Bombing. We have seen this as well:

Matthew 25: 1 - 13 (RSV):

[1] "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
[2] Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
[3] For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
[4] but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
[5] As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
[6] But at midnight there was a cry, `Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
[7] Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.
[8] And the foolish said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
[9] But the wise replied, `Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.'
[10] And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.
[11] Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, `Lord, lord, open to us.'
[12] But he replied, `Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
[13] Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

At the start of this Post, a long section from Catch-22 was given. Joseph Heller was one of the greatest of all writers and he was also one of the greatest Jewish Writers of all time as well. It should be seen that both Heller and Vonnegut inverted Ecclesiastes for great effect. The Inversion comes at a cost:

"People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.
I've finished my war book now. The next one I write is going to be fun.
This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt. It begins like this:

Listen:
Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time..."

The Priest - now recursively in the person of Peter - can only do what he has done throughout his life. He returns to the Priesthood. As he tries to find meaning in the Meaninglessness, he returns to Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesdiastes 9: 3 - 6 (RSV):

[3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all; also the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
[4] But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
[5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.
[6] Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and they have no more for ever any share in all that is done under the sun.
[7] Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already approved what you do.
[8] Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head.
[9] Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

How is it to End? In this, our Priest finds a beginning:

Matthew 5: 23 24 (RSV):

[23] So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
[24] leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Was that it? With the bodies stacked like cordwood and the flames rising into the sky? While Evil Ruled again?

Matthew 6: 25 - 26 (RSV):

[25] "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
[26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Was that how it was supposed to end?

"Birds were talking.
One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Poo-tee-weet?" "
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