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| Sacred scrolls in a sacred Jewish ark |
This blog isn’t sacred. Or is it?
It could be, depending on the definition of sacred.
The dictionary defines sacred as
“connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so
deserving veneration … the power, being, or realm
understood by religious persons to be at the core of existence and to have a
transformative effect on their lives and destinies.”
Sounds perfect: sacred = religious.
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| Gutenberg Bibke |
By that definition. religious texts
are considered sacred. So, too, the Gutenberg Bible, first printed around
1455. Only 40 of the original 150 to 180
books have survived. The last one sold
publicly went for $2.2 million in 1978, but experts estimate a single Bible
today could bring in as much as $25 million.
Other books are sacred, too. For example, not that long ago, in
Afghanistan, several copies of the Quran, the sacred book of Islam, ended up in
a trash heap and were burned in front of NATO headquarters there. Gen.
John Allen, then-supreme commander of NATO troops, said the books were included
in trash to be discarded and inadvertently given to troops to burn.
Then-President Barack Obama has
also apologized to the Afghans, well aware that Muslims believe the Quran is so
holy that it can only be touched with freshly washed hands.
Despite the apologies, the opposition Taliban called on Afghanis to kill infidels who dared to burn the book in what
Muslims call an act of intolerance and bigotry. Several NATO soldiers were
killed by angry Muslims. There were also a handful of riots.
Burning the Bible would outrage
some Christian leaders, too. Jews would be furious if a Torah ended up in
the flames.
They are all considered
sacred. However, the Quran is a
book. So is the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindus, the Avista of the
Zoroastrians and every other religious text. They have no value except as
books. They are seen as sacred because they contain religious
teachings. That means they are only of value to someone who believes in
the words.
Besides, where does one stop?
How about the printers’ plates used to produce religious texts? The
electronic images of the pages sent to the printer? Shouldn’t they be
saved? How about the machines that the books are printed on? In
linotype, book pages are put together letter by letter. Ever wonder what
happened to the type that was used for that purpose? It was melted down
and recast. God’s name and all. Shouldn’t the metal pieces have
been preserved?
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| Coins issued by Caliph Uthman |
Has any Muslim ever asked where are
all the pieces of paper, leaves and linen used to record down the Prophet’s
words? In Muhammad’s day, the late 6th and the early 7th
century, there were no stationary stores, no letterhead, no fancy paper with
watermarks. People wrote down their thoughts and stories on whatever was
available: palm leaves, walls, whatever.
That material was collected some 30
years later in the reign of Caliph Uthman. The text became standardized
in the middle of the 7th century, but even Islamic scholars agree
that not all of it may have originated with Muhammad. Some may have been
added or subtracted as times and conditions changed.
What happened to the original
writings? They were discarded, of course. So were early texts of
biblical books. Historians would love to find an original Matthew or
Mark, for example, but none exists. The oldest New Testament dates from
around the 3rd century with only rare fragments from earlier times.
Even the early “sacred” Jewish and
Christian texts have a spotty history. They were discarded, maybe
burned. Once they wore out from use, they were copied (with the usual
assortment of errors added) and then the original was thrown away. They
were also written on vellum, parchment and
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| Dead Sea Scrolls in situ |
Jews developed the policy of not
destroying the name of God. They bury books and sacred items, such as
prayer shawls, which may contain God’s name. In a way, that’s a good
thing: the long-lost writings of the famed Jewish philosopher Maimonides were
recovered centuries later because they were hidden and not burned.
However, his books were kept in a house. How long would they have lasted
in the ground? How long do any sacred objects buried today last?
Ask any archaeologist. The stuff that survives is made of stone.
Almost nothing else endures.
Regardless, the standard definition
of sacred is far too narrow. Consider
the collection of plays written by William Shakespeare.
The great playwright was largely
forgotten after he died in 1616. Copies
of his plays, all handwritten, vanished, too.
Then, a couple of his friends, John Heminges and Henry Condell, decide
to collect whatever they could find, including handwritten copies created by
theatergoers. In 1623, they published
what has become known as the First Folio.
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| First Folio |
It contains 36 plays and claims to
be the authentic words, but we know today that other versions of Shakespeare’s
plays exist.
Want to buy a copy of the First
Folio? About 40 have survived in various
conditions. The last one sold at auction
at 2006 fetched about $2.8 million.
The books are retreated with great
respect and even awe. To many people,
they are sacred.
How
about images? Sure.
Several years ago, Palestinians in Gaza
gathered outside a French cultural center, chanting "Leave Gaza, you
French, or we will slaughter you by cutting your throats” because of cartoons
published in Charlie Hebdo, a
now-famous French satirical magazine.
In Niger, the Associated Press
reported:
173 people have been
injured; at least 45 churches have been "set ablaze in the capital
(Niamey) alone," and a "Christian school and orphanage were also set
alight." Numerous sites were pillaged before being burned. A video
from Niamey showed protesters waving Qur'ans and yelling "God is
great" while tearing apart Bibles and throwing them onto the ground.
Pakistan
was no better. According to published reports from there:
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse
protesters outside the French consulate. A Pakistani photographer for AFP was
shot and wounded, the news agency reported. At least 200 protesters were
involved in the violence, which broke out after Muslim religious parties called
on supporters to condemn the cartoon following afternoon prayers, said Ahmed
Chinoy, chief of Karachi's Citizen Police Liaison Committee. Images from
the scene showed police in running street fights with demonstrators.
Those protests came after Pakistan's parliament unanimously passed a resolution
condemning the caricatures printed in Charlie Hebdo.
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| Actual cartoon |
That’s
rights: drawings of of Muhammad are sacred enough to incite murder.
One Israeli newspaper quoted a Gaza
protestor named Abu Abdallah Makdissi as saying, "Today, we are telling
France and world countries that while Islam orders us to respect all religions,
it also orders us to punish and kill those who assault and offend Islam's
Prophet Mohammad."
Actually,
that’s not factual. The Muslim holy book, the Quran, does not ban images
of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad in any form. There are only two lines in the religious text that even offer advice on this subject:
[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the
earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him. (42:11)
[Abraham] said to his father and his people: “What are these
images to whose worship you cleave?' They said: “We found our fathers
worshiping them.” He said: “Certainly you have been, you and your fathers, in
manifest error." (21:52-54)
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| Abbreviated Commandments |
That
teaching parallels the second Commandment in Jewish teachings:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of then that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and
keep my commandments. (Ex: 20: 4-6)
The
Abraham account in the Quran is also very similar to a Jewish tale about
Abraham objecting to and later destroying idols made in his father’s workshop.
In
Islamic tradition, however, images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major
prophets of the Christian and Jewish traditions are prohibited. Muslims
have gotten around their restriction largely by using calligraphy as art, while
Jews have simply avoided depicting anything that could be worshiped as a deity.
Not
that everyone paid attention to such rules. Artists in the Middle East,
but principally in Persia, regularly produced images of the Prophet starting in
the 7th century.
Obviously,
the definition of sacred linked only to religion is wrong. Something sacred could be linked to religion,
but it doesn’t have to be.
Who
knows, then, this blog could become sacred in some distant future.
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Bill Lazarus is a religious historian who also writes
about American history. He holds an M.A.
in communication and an ABD in American studies. He has had multiple books published, both
fiction and nonfiction, including Revelation,
Adventures in Bonding, Comparative Religion for Dummies and A Guide to American Culture. He can be
reached via his website: wlazarus.com.
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