Run On Sentences

1. Run On Sentences • It has been a long time since I have been to the beach, I am looking forward to the trip. • The one who looks like a military officer but acts like a spoiled brat. • Mary signed up because she thought the training would be interesting and help her on the job. • I have a hard time understanding her lectures, when I talk to her one-on-one, I understand her fine. • Joe was happy about the raise he felt like celebrating.

2. David and Bathsheba • Like many other kings at the time, David had many wives and concubines. He still, however, had a wandering eye. • Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (a brave soldier in David’s army), was the object of David’s affection. She became pregnant by David, so he resorted to trickery.

3. David and Bathsheba • He recalled Uriah from the battlefields and told him to go be with his wife. David assumed that she would be able to tell Uriah that she was pregnant by him. Uriah, however, followed the code of a good soldier and refused to leave his army in battle to go to his wife.

4. David and Bathsheba • Because his plan failed, David sent orders to “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and die” (2 Samuel 11:15). The plan succeeded and Bathsheba was considered free. After the traditional mourning period, David married Bathsheba and he bore her a son.

5. I Took My Power in My Hand – Emily Dickinson I took my Power in my Hand-And went against the World-'Twas not so much as David had-But I was twice as bold- I aimed my Pebble but MyselfWas all the one that fell-Was it Goliath was too large Or was myself too small?

6. Other Connections • “Goliath of Gath” by Phyllis Wheatley • “Autobiography, New York” by Charles Reznikoff (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182064 )

7. David’s Sinful Nature • Within this story, there are two traditional Biblical forms – the psalm (a poetic prayer set to music) and the parable (a very short story that conveys a moral or spiritual point). • The prophet Nathan (successor to Samuel) confronted David with his sin by telling the king a parable.

8. The Parable • There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared that for the guest who had come to him. – 2 Samuel 12:1-4

9. The Parable • David was caught in the prophet Nathan’s trap and was so moved by the story that he cried out, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!” • Nathan replied: “You are the man!”

10. Solomon • After David, David’s son Solomon became king (even though he was not the oldest). Solomon was ruler during a time of turmoil and shifting alliances. • According to 1 Kings, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and made an astonishing offer: Ask for anything and it will be yours. • Solomon requested wisdom.

11. The Wisdom of Solomon • This gift of wisdom became Solomon’s most memorable characteristic. Even today a person who makes wise decisions is called “like Solomon” or “a Solomon.” • One of his most famous cases was the case of two women who both claimed the same baby. • http://youtu.be/5ExJtFgD45c

12. The Wisdom of Solomon • Solomon’s wisdom earned him a strong reputation, and “When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Somon (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with hard questions” 1 Kings 10:1.

13. The Wisdom of Solomon • There is not much known of the Queen of Sheba, but artists have imagined the meeting between the two in a variety of works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGKJ9MgCOQ • “Solomon to Sheba” by William Butler Yeats • “King Solomon and the Ants” by John Greenleaf Whittier • The Wisdom Bird: A Tale of Solomon and Sheba by Sheldon Oberman • The last two are based on an elaboration of the biblical account in Surah 27 (“The Ant”) of the Qur’an based on Jewish legend giving Solomon wisdom and the ability to understand and speak to all creatures.

14. Samson • Samson is given power by God (Judges 14:14) • He solves a riddle relating to a honeycomb he found in the skull of a lion he had killed the year before. • Transformed by God’s purposes, Samson’s all consuming self-indulgence is turned to moral nourishment, and the sweetness of deliverance comes from his strength.

15. Samson • Out of the eater came something to eat, • Out of the strong came something sweet. • Judges 14:14

16. Samson • Samson often bears a resemblance to classical Greek heroes, especially when considering that hubris leads to his downfall. • Delilah is often seen as a temptress who lures Samson to relinquish his secret.

17. Samson Agonistes – John Milton O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! In power of others, never in my own; Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half. O dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Without all hope of day!

18. Reading for Allusions – These will help! • 1 Kings 1 to 4 • Jonah 1 to 4 • Amos 5 • Samuel 18 and 19

19. Absolom • David’s oldest son and heir, Amnon, raped and traumatized Tamar, Absolom’s half-sister. Absalom, David’s second son, saw that David indulged Amnon, and would not punish him, so Absalom had Amnon killed to avenge Tamar’s honor.

20. Absalom • David blindly mourned Amnon and condemned Absalom, who had no choice but to go into exile. Father and son were temporarily reconciled, and for a time maintained polite appearances. • Absalom, however, was vain and ambitious, and it wasn’t long before he let himself be persuaded to rebel against his father.

21. Absalom • Vanity ultimately leads to Absalom’s downfall. His hair gets caught in a tree and he is stabbed by one of King David’s soldiers while entangled.

22. Absalom • Only in hindsight, after Absalom’s death in battle, did David mourn the son he had turned into an enemy: • The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son! - 2 Samuel 18:33

23. Allusions to Absalom • Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner discusses the return of the main character’s son. • Absalom was also the name of Stephen Kumalo's son in the Alan Patan novel Cry the Beloved Country. Like the Absalom of yore, Absalom Kumalo was at odds with his father, the two fighting a moral and ethical battle of sorts over the course of some of the novel's most important events.

24. Jonah • Jonah is written as a third-person narrative • Jonah’s audience is Nineveh, the capital city of wickedness, and the heart of the Assyrians (Israel’s oppressors) • Jonah was reluctant to follow the will of God; he was not interested in saving Nineveh, wich was a brutally militaristic nation, much like Hitler’s Germany

25. Jonah • Rather than carry out God’s command, Jonah took matters into his own hands and jumped aboard a ship heading in the opposite direction (from Nienveh to Tarshish).

27. Jonah • This action alone should indicate how unhappy Jonah was about his mission – the desert-dwelling Israelites feared the powerful ocean more than anything else in the natural world. • An intense storm struck, and the ship Jonah was on began to sink. The captain called Jonah on deck, and the sailors cast lots to determine who was responsible for the problem.

28. Jonah • This action alone should indicate how unhappy Jonah was about his mission – the desert-dwelling Israelites feared the powerful ocean more than anything else in the natural world. • An intense storm struck, and the ship Jonah was on began to sink. The captain called Jonah on deck, and the sailors cast lots to determine who was responsible for the problem.

29. Jonah • Just when Jonah was on the point of drowning, a big fish scooped him up. There is no mention of a whale in the book of Jonah, the image developed after repeated telling of the story. • Jonah offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to God for saving him from death. His gratitude was increased by the fact that he deserved to die, but God showed him mercy.

30. Jonah • Jonah was then purged on to dry land by the big fish at the command of God. Now Jonah had to honor a second command from God, so he went to Nineveh to proclaim the message God had given him. • Ironically, after the Ninevites repent, Jonah is concerned with the fact that the Israelites are God’s chosen people and yet, God wants to reform all. The hypocritical attitude is rare in the Old Testament.

31. Jonah and Literature • Herman Melville’s story of the captain of a New England whaling ship, Ahab, is the most obvious allusion of Jonah’s tale in western literature. • “Call me Ishmael.”

32. The Hymn – as seen in Moby Dick When I could scarce believe him mine, He bowed his ear to my complaints – No more the whale did me confine, With speed flew to my relief, As on a radiant dolphin borne; Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone The face of my Deliverer God. The ribs and terrors in the whale, Arched over me a dismal gloom, While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by, And lift me deepening down to doom, I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Oh, I was plunging to despair. In black distress, I called my God,

33. Social Justice in the Bible • The book of Amos and Micah announced that because of the Israelite’s social injustice and religious arrogance, God would punish them • But let justice roll down like waters; and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. - Amos 5:24 • These words were adopted by many contemporary political activists, and are featured on the wall of The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.

35. Connection • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1L8y-MX3pg • Two connections – one to Moses, one to the gospel of Matthew