2. Old Wineskins (No Longer Available)

Program Description

Longevity certainly ain't what it used to be. Adam lived to be over 900 years old, and Noah wasn't considered long in the tooth until his 800th birthday. Think of it, life would have been almost nothing but the golden years. Of course, the seniors' homes would have been crowded, but then there were the generous pension options to consider: put fifty cents aside every month for the first 80 years and retire at 600 with 200 billion in the bank. Freedom 555!   

Indeed, seeing that none of the early patriarchs in the Hebrew Testament died before their 100th birthday, one can be forgiven for thinking that living a long time is something that the Bible considers a just reward for piety, or that a careful observing of the commandments is meant to guarantee you "length of days." And so it is, in a sense. But consider the phrase itself "length of days." Are we supposed to hope for many days, or that however many days we are given be "long" ones? In the end, the Bible is often rather circumspect about what it regards to be the perfect recipe for an "abundant life." It presents the question of "the fullest life" from a variety of perspectives, and we are probably on safer ground thinking of Abraham "giving up the ghost ... in a good old age, an old man, and full of years" as a metaphor for something that is available to us at all stages of life. More than quantity of years, the Bible is about the importance of memory (we'll taste around in Deuteronomy and the scene of Moses on Mount Nebo), about late creativity (we'll look at the late childbirths Abraham and Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth), and about the relations between a mindful vitality and physical decline (we'll talk about Job). But perhaps more than anything it is about the idea of an "end-time" and about the kind of spiritual apocalypse (with all thoughts on Revelations), which, were we but equal to its potential, we die out of, and are born into every moment of our lives.  

Discussion Leader

As a seminar leader with Classical Pursuits, Jeffery Donaldson is very "full of years." He teaches poetry, literature and the Bible, and American Literature at McMaster University in Hamilton.   He's getting long in the tooth.  

Books

Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Inexpensive used copies are available at most used bookshops. Readings amount to a short-to-medium-length novel and will be posted on the website.