Great Quote I

All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain.

Their birth in grief and ashes.

-Cormac McCarthy
The Road

Epic of Gilgamesh - Preamble

Great literature tells us something about the struggles and concerns of the era in which it is written. It also speaks to us about issues which continue, perhaps indefinitely, to distress mankind. Even a work of pure fantasy, The Lord of the Rings trilogy (to the contrary of Professor Tolkien's denial about the use of allegory), is burdened with the tension between the agricultural and the industrial, the former in its last death throes as twentieth-century Western society became almost wholly industrialized. The great tales of Western civilization, even it's most ancient foundational stories, are no less concerned with the pre-occupations of the cultures from which they spring.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, almost certainly the oldest known story outside those contained in the earliest chapters of the book of Genesis, is fraught with the difficulties experienced in three different relationships: that between civilization and wilderness, that between man and his fellow man, and that between man and god.

Part One: Civilization vs. Wilderness - "Is it not burnt brick and good?"
Part Two: Gilgamesh and Enkidu - A Love Story
Part Three: Ancient Religion - Mortality and Fickle Gods

The Enuma Elish and Ancient Religions

The Enuma Elish is essentially the Babylonian Creation tale. It is probably based on a tale told by the Sumerians, who were the antecedent culture in Babylonia. This makes the story at least 5,000 years old, and it is probably much older. It may have acquired it’s formal structure during the rise of the first cities (1) but it is possible that the tale originates in our pre-civilization era, when people still lived in villages or even as roving bands of hunter-gatherers.

This creation story is not really a great book of Western Civilization, or of any civilization. Unlike the Iliad or Milton’s Paradise Lost, it does not continue to be read for entertainment by anyone, and is not found in complete form anywhere (The preceding can be considered as a just the initial requirement for a great book). While some books included on the reading list also suffer from lacunae or missing pages, such as Beowulf, their meaning is not greatly affected and, furthermore, they have continued in the popular imagination (or have re-emerged into the popular imagination in the case of Beowulf) in a way that the Enuma Elish has not.

What remains of the Enuma Elish is found on seven broken stone tablets discovered in 1849 near Mosul, Iraq (2). It is a story that little involves mankind, though there is a fragment which suggests that some of the battles between the gods (which the tale describes) took place after "the cities" had been established. The Enuma Elish is difficult to read, even in translation, because several sections of these tablets are missing(3). Thus one cannot summarize the story well, since no one is exactly sure of what is happening at a number of points, and it is not clear what causes lead to which effects and so on.

What is evident, and what is crucial for us in understanding the later stories that we will study, is that the story depicts a world dominated by gods who resemble men in the worst possible ways. The multiple gods of the ancients, be they Babylonian, Greek, Roman or Hindu, are described as a great inter-related (and incestuous) clan of deities, who spend most of their time in power struggles and petty bickering which often result in strife for mankind or the world in general. Indeed, the creation story told on these seven tablets is more a tale of divine war than it is of creation. Those accustomed to the sedate and orderly procession of the days of Creation in Judeo-Christian scriptures may be shocked, and perhaps a little disappointed, in the chaotic scenes described in the Enuma Elish.

The world begins, as in Genesis, with the waters dominating the scene. There is no name for anything else, just the awesome waters and the primeval gods. We are told that much time passes in this uncertainty at the beginning of all things.

Somehow, the gods come into conflict and an alliance is formed around the Great Mother of the gods, Tiamat, or Chaos, against the ascendant Marduk. Tiamat takes a new husband, Kingu, and gives him the "Tablets of Destiny". She also creates many monsters, such as dragons and scorpion-men, to fight battles for her. The meaning of all this is best left for the study of history and has little importance for our goal: an understanding of the literature of Western Civilization. Let it suffice to say that Marduk eventually wins and becomes the greatest among the gods.

The most significant information for our study is found in the depictions of the deities involved. In the West, we live in a society founded on an orderly concept of divinity. Judaism, the foundation for both Christianity and Islam, is a legalistic religion, which describes a god who is somewhat mysterious yet very regular and logical. He is also the greatest of the all "the gods" and completely in charge of the universe. Christianity, which began as a Jewish sect, later embraced Greek philosophy, in particular that of Aristotle, who sought to organize thought in a way never before attempted. The god of Islam is also a god of order and law. These three religions being the essential foundations of culture in the West, they have been the springboards for a viewpoint which sees an orderly, almost mechanistic deity, such as in Deism. And, though many in the West no longer follow any of these religions, they usually eschew religion in favor of science, which also presents an ordered and logical universe to its followers.

This orderliness was unthinkable to our ancestors. When we pick up the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey, we will read of multiple gods, ever in conflict, ever scheming and altering not only the physical world at a whim, but even breaking moral codes when it suits them. We shall see some examples of this in our first Great Book - the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Writing

People invented writing for economic purposes, possibly because transactions involving camels, cows and bushels of barley were becoming too numerous for a man to keep track of everything in his head (1).

This means to say something more than the modern mind might imagine. People today have a hard time remembering their own telephone numbers. Ancient man, and men in some societies today still possess these abilities, could keep track of incredible amounts of data simply by storing it in that moist computer we call the brain. To demonstrate, I need only point out that tales like the Iliad and the Odyssey (later featured here on this blog) were told by illiterates who memorized them (2). If ancient man was capable of such a feat, the complexity and amount of their economic dealings must have been considerable for writing to have been necessary.

Or, was it not an issue of data involved but rather a trust issue? Did it become too difficult to be sure that each man’s memory was correct when it came to remembering how many wagon wheels were promised in exchange last fall for this summer’s wheat crop? Was writing invented in order to keep everyone honest? It doesn’t matter much for our purposes here. But it may be of interest later on, when we come to more modern writings and we see that people begin to suspect that the written word has lost it’s certainty, and the signifier no longer has the same signified.

Regardless, the first writings we know of involve business. Writing was not invented to tell heroic stories or to express love in a poem. Ancient stories and poems, those known and unknown to us, probably existed long before writing, and existed alongside writing for some period of time before two things happened - sufficient written vocabulary came into existence and it was deemed useful, for whatever reason, to actually write the stories down.

Archaeologists have discovered tokens that were presumably used previous to the existence of writing(3). A wooden or stone token may signified a sheep, or ten sheep, or a hundred sheep. At some point, it became useful to make marks that looked like the tokens on tablets of stone or clay. Thus writing was most likely born (4). At some later time, there were enough words in the written vocabulary (presumably more than numbers and animal or crop names) to enable a man to actually record, in writing, a tale that was already known to people through oral traditions.

This transition, from business to literature, happened first in Southwest Asia (5), the place we know today as Mesopotamia, where the earliest cities, those of Sumer, were built. Amid the wreckage and ruins of this ancient civilization, we have uncovered tablets that tell of the heroes and deities whose tales entertained our ancestors.

The oldest story is called the Enuma Elish. These words are simply the first two words in the story, meaning "when on high..." in English. The next essay will concern this account of the beginning of the world and the gods who witnessed it.

Reading List

1. Enuma Elish
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh
3. The Iliad
4. The Odyssey
5. Greek Plays
6. Herodotus
7. Thucydides
8. Plato
9. Marcus Aurelius
10. Virgil
11. Plutarch
12. Tacitus
13. Augustine
14. Beowulf
15. Dante
16. Chaucer
17. Machiavelli
18. Rabelais
19. Shakespeare
20. Cervantes
21. Milton
22. Swift
23. Goethe
24. Melville
25. Tolstoy
26. Dostoevsky
27. Dickens
28. Stephen Crane
29. Joseph Conrad
30. James Joyce
31. Hemingway
32. Cormac McCarthy

Year One - Beginning August 16th, 2011

(Pre-Advent)
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Josue
4. 1-2 Kings
5. Canticle of Canticles
6. 3-4 Kings
7. Tobias

(Advent)
8. Isaias
9. Abdias
10. Malachias

(Christmas)
11. St. Matthew

(Lent)
12. Job

(Easter)
13. Acts

(Pentecost)
14. Romans
15. Galatians
16. 1 Thessalonians
17. 2 Thessalonians
18. Hebrews
19. St. James
20. Apocalypse

Year Four - Beginning August 16th, 2010

(Pre-Advent)
1. Genesis
2. Deuteronomy
3. Wisdom
4. 1 Esdras
5. 2 Esdras
6. 1 Machabees
7. 2 Machabees

(Advent)
8. Daniel
9. Osee
10. Joel
11. Amos
12. Jonas
13. Micheas
14. Habacuc
15. Sophonias
16. Zacharias

(Christmas)
17. St. John

(Lent)
18. Job

(Easter)
19. Acts

(Pentecost)
20. 1 St. John
21. 2 St. John
22. 3 St. John
23. St. Jude
24. Apocalypse

Year Three - Beginning August 16th, 2009

(Pre-Advent)
1. Genesis
2. Numbers
3. Ruth
4. Ecclesiasticus
5. Ecclesiastes
6. Esther

(Advent)
7. Ezechiel
8. Nahum
9. Aggeus

(Christmas)
10. St. Luke

(Lent)
11. Job

(Easter)
12. Acts

(Pentecost)
13. 2 Corinthians
14. Philippians
15. Colossians
16. 1 Timothy
17. 2 Timothy
18. Hebrews
19. Apocalypse

Year Two - Beginning August 16th, 2008

(Pre-Advent)
1. Genesis
2. Leviticus
3. Judges
4. 1 Paralipomenon
5. Proverbs
6. 2 Paralipomenon
7. Judith

(Advent)
8. Jeremias
9. Lamentations
10.Baruch

(Christmas)
11. St. Mark

(Lent)
12. Job

(Easter)
13. Acts

(Pentecost)
14. 1 Corinthians
15. Ephesians
16. Titus
17. Philemon
18. Hebrews
19. 1 St. Peter
20. 2 St. Peter
21. Apocalypse

Four-Year Scripture Schedule

This schedule represents an attempt, not simply to "read the whole Bible", but to always read scripture.

Over the course of four years, the reader will read all the books of the Bible. Each "scriptural year" starts on August 16th with the Pre-Advent Schedule, which always begins with the book of Genesis. Other books are encountered on a rotational basis.

This schedule is aimed at use by working people, who may only be able to dedicate 30 to 60 minutes each day to strictly spiritual matters.

General Plan

I. Pre-Advent (August 16th to Saturday before Advent - approximately 105 days): Historical and Wisdom books from the Old Testament.

II. Advent (First Sunday of Advent until December 23rd - approximately 25 days): Prophecies from the Old Testament

III. Christmas (December 24th until the Tuesday before Lent - between 45 and 70 days): One gospel

IV. Lent (Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday - 44 days): The Book of Job

V. Easter (Easter Sunday until the Saturday before Pentecost - 49 days): The Acts of the Apostles

VI. Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday until Assumption - approximately 90 days): A selection of New Testament books.

In viewing the four-year layout, notice that there are certain "rotations". The first two years are heavy with historical writings. In the third year, there is much less, though the book of Ecclesiasticus does begin a recapitulation of the patriarchs in it’s 44th chapter. Year four skips, over much history, directly to the return from exile, which the previous years overlook. The New Testament is also broken down - according to author and focus. Each year concludes with the Apocalypse of St. John. The Psalms will be prayed before and after each reading.

Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four

Scripture Study: Year One

This schedule, covering the post-Pentecost section of a typical schedule, utilizes changes in format and style which should stay consistent throughout the four-years.

First, I have moved away from daily assignments, since this could only cause discouragement for a working Catholic with a family, who certainly couldn't manage to stay faithful to the schedule every day (Hey, not even I can do that, and I invented this crazy scheme!) Instead, I have divided the calendar into weeks, starting each week on a Sunday. Following the dates for each week comes a series of "assignments", which can be read at your leisure. It is possible to skip a day, if necessary, or do three in one day if you suddenly have time on your hands. Furthermore, I will only post once a week, showing links to all the assignments and adding links to helpful exegetical texts by the Fathers of the Church as the week goes by. This should also offer a more relaxed opportunity for discussion of various themes throughout the week, instead of forcing us to leave behind a juicy passage before we really get a chance to reflect on it.

More importantly, each assignment is preceded and succeeded by a psalm, which I have specifically chosen for its pertinence to the text offered. My intent is to turn these readings into prayers, rather than just reading assignments. Thus, I recommend that, instead of just plowing into the reading when you sit down, you should pause and make the sign of the cross (at the very least), before praying the psalm that precedes the reading assignment, which is given in bold print. The psalm which follows the assignment should be similarly treated.

May 11-17
Psalm 113, Acts 1, Psalm 67
Psalm 16, Acts 2, Psalm 110
Psalm 2, Acts 3-5, Psalm 115
Psalm 105, Acts 6-7, Psalm 106
Psalm 15, Acts 8, Psalm 48
Psalm 17, Acts 9, Psalm 30

May 18-24
Psalm 92, Acts 10, Psalm 84
Psalm 145, Acts 11, Psalm 138
Psalm 94, Acts 12, Psalm 123
Psalm 16, Acts 13-14, Psalm 89
Psalm 125, Acts 15, Psalm 133

May 25-31
Psalm 109, Acts 16, Psalm 30
Psalm 17, Acts 17, Psalm 144
Psalm 109, Acts 18, Psalm 98
Psalm 120, Acts 19, Psalm 27
Psalm 126, Acts 20, Psalm 134

June 1-7
Psalm 140, Acts 21-23, Psalm142
Psalm 58, Acts 24-26, Psalm 125
Psalm 100, Acts 27, Psalm 29
Psalm 121, Acts 28, Psalm 150

June 8-14
Psalm 38, Galatians 1, Psalm 65
Psalm 93, Galatians 2, Psalm 124
Psalm 73, Galatians 3-4, Psalm 47
Psalm 14, Galatians 5, Psalm 9
Psalm 108, Galatians 6, Psalm 72

June 15-21
Psalm13, 1 Thessalonians 1, Psalm 43
Psalm 141, 1 Thessalonians 2, Psalm 65
Psalm 63, 1 Thessalonians 3, Psalm 11
Psalm 14, 1 Thessalonians 4, Psalm 71
Psalm 70, 1 Thessalonians 5, Psalm 26

June 22-28
Psalm139, Titus 1, Psalm 52
Psalm 5, Titus 2, Psalm 3
Psalm 21, Titus 3, Psalm 15

June 29-July 5
Psalm 110, Hebrews 1, Psalm 45
Psalm 85, Hebrews 2, Psalm 128
Psalm 130, Hebrews 3, Psalm 126
Psalm 1, Hebrews 4, Psalm 95
Psalm 42, Hebrews 5, Psalm 43
Psalm 102, Hebrews 6, Psalm 97

July 6-12
Psalm 76, Hebrews 7, Psalm 110
Psalm 68, Hebrews 8, Psalm 79
Psalm 148, Hebrews 9, Psalm 132
Psalm 40, Hebrews 10, Psalm 110
Psalm 51, Hebrews 11, Psalm 66
Psalm10, Hebrews 12, Psalm 1
Psalm 65, Hebrews 13, Psalm 118

July 13-19
Psalm 143, James 1, Psalm 81
Psalm 133, James 2, Psalm 62
Psalm 52, James 3, Psalm 119
Psalm 73, James 4, Psalm 41
Psalm 101, James 5, Psalm 128

July 20-26
Psalm 140, Apocalypse 1-3, Psalm 2
Psalm 42, Apocalypse 4, Psalm 96
Psalm 102, Apocalypse 5, Psalm 92
Psalm 89, Apocalypse 6, Psalm 29

July 27-August 2
Psalm 7, Apocalypse 7, Psalm 47
Psalm 51, Apocalypse 8, Psalm
Psalm 5, Apocalypse 9, Psalm 8
Psalm 54, Apocalypse 10, Psalm 19
Psalm 67, Apocalypse 11, Psalm 59
Psalm 88, Apocalypse 12, Psalm 76

August 3-9
Psalm 57, Apocalypse 13, Psalm 70
Psalm 146, Apocalypse 14, Psalm 67
Psalm 3, Apocalypse 15, Psalm 123
Psalm 75, Apocalypse 16, Psalm 82
Psalm 23, Apocalypse 17-19, Psalm 9

August 10-15
Psalm 100, Apocalypse 20, Psalm 98
Psalm 145, Apocalypse 21, Psalm 122
Psalm 117, Apocalypse 22, Psalm150

End of Year One