This paper consists of notes from an adult Sunday School class that I taught many hears ago. 

As some of you know, this adult class has not been following any particular course of study but is more likely to have its lessons based on whatever the designated teacher has found interesting in the weeks leading up to his or her scheduled teaching assignment, most often something that he or she has recently read. Recently, I have purchased a couple of books, one by Tom Harper (The Pagan Christ) and one by Karen Armstrong (The Bible: A Biography). Harper introduces his book with a quotation from John Dominic Crossan: 

“My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.” 

We will come back to that point later. But first, I want to talk about good books. In Section 85 of the Doctrine and Covenants, known as “The Olive Leaf,” the church is admonished: 

[Sec 85:36a] …Call your solemn assembly, as I have commanded you; and as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning even by study, and also by faith. 

As a church, although we espouse three books of scripture, we do not limit the truth of God to either (1) previous revelation, or (2) future revelation given only through the prophet of the church; neither do we limit the truth of God to past understandings. See, for example, Section 149 of the D & C: Revelation given through W. Wallace Smith, prophet and seer to the church, April 1, 1968. 

[Sec 149:4] Some of you have sought security in the words and phrases by which the faithful of earlier days have expressed their knowledge of me. My ways are still the ways of my Son. My servants of the holy priesthood will need to be alert as ne er before to see that my work is not vitiated by the designs of the adversary. They must also bring to their searching for truth and their service to my people all the treasures of understanding I have opened for them elsewhere. It is necessary for all to promote unity so that my blessings can be yours as you willingly bend your strength to kingdom-building enterprises.

[Sec 149:5] My servants of the leading quorums are commended for their diligence in seeking more light and truth from all available sources. For have I not told you that my glory is intelligence and he that seeketh learning by study and by faith will be rewarded in this life and the life to come? 

In fact, to the extent that we believe our own scriptures, we believe that God has spoken to people throughout the ages, and not only to the Jews and the early Christian church. In fact, our own church teaches that God has revealed Himself to people throughout the world throughout the ages, in ways appropriate to their cultural development and understanding, and that He is the “one God” of love that is responsible for the diverse manifestations of the Golden Rule. Consider, for example, this passage from the Book of Mormon: 

[2 Ne 12:53] Thou fool, that shall say, A bible, we have got a bible, and we need no more bible. 

[2 Ne 12:54] Have ye obtained a bible save it were by the Jews?

[2 Ne 12:55] Know ye not that there are more nations than one?

[2 Ne 12:56] Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath;

[2 Ne 12:57] And I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

…

[2 Ne 12:63] And because that I have spoken one word, ye need not suppose that I can not speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be, until the end of man; neither from that time hence forth and for ever.

[2 Ne 12:64] Wherefore, because that ye have a bible, ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written:

[2 Ne 12:65] For I command all men, both in the east, and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them:

[2 Ne 12:66] For out of the books which shall be written, I will judge the world, every man according to his works, according to that which is written.

[2 Ne 12:67] For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it:

[2 Ne 12:68] And I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it;

[2 Ne 12:69] And I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it;

[2 Ne 12:70] And I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it.

For this lesson, I want to begin by reviewing a bit about the Hindu scriptures. Unlike other major religions, Hinduism has no historical founder, and it has many holy books, not just one. The earliest of these scriptures date from some time after 1500 B.C.E., after the invading Aryans had settled into northern India and were being assimilated into its population, although they weren’t written down until about 500 B.C.E. These include the four Vedas, or collections of hymns – the gods were invoked by singing hymns inviting them to attend sacrifices, and they were assumed to be present during them. 

There are 33 principal deities praised in the Vedas. Each of these 33 deities has its own personal responsibility. For example, Agni is the God of Fire; Prithivi, the Earth Goddess; Rudya, Chief of the Storm Deities; Vishnu, the all-pervader; and so on. However, although the hymns of the Vedas praise all of these different deities, the Vedic sages had already formed the idea that the various deities were all aspects of One Supreme Power. 

The next set of Hindu scriptures to be developed were the Upanishads, so named (“Upa-ni-shada” meaning “sitting near”) because they were originally tutorials given to select pupils who sat near their teachers to hear the sacred teachings. Important because of their philosophical teachings, they have survived in their present form since about 200 B.C.E. They contain the idea that there is a one-ness of all things throughout the created universe, that the individual soul (atman) and the universal soul (Brahman), the “One God” of Hinduism, are the same; that the visible world is an illusion (maya) but that Brahman is eternal, limitless, omnipresent( and may be male or female); that the individual soul is without beginning or end but exists through a cycle of successive births and deaths (samsara); that the total effect of actions (karma) decides the next existence of the soul; and that the soul is capable of achieving freedom from its cycle of successive births and deaths and becoming (or becoming one with) Brahman through selfless action (“When all attachment arising from desires is destroyed, man’s mortality ends, and only then does atman reach Brahman”). 

Brahman is without form, but Hindus are free to imagine this Supreme Spirit in any way that is meaningful to them, and they have done so in terms of its various aspects. The first major aspect of Brahman is Brahma, who created and continues to create the world. One of the Vedic gods of light, Vishnu (who looks after the world) becomes a second prominent aspect of Brahman, and Rudra (Chief of the Storm Deities) is combined with the male deity of the pre-Aryan Indus people to become Shiva, who continually destroys part of the world so that Brahma can continue his work of creation. 

The earliest Hindu scriptures, the Vedas, are called shruti (or heard) texts, and are considered to be not of human origin, for they are believed to have been revealed by Brahman to certain inspired wise men of old. The next set of Hindu scriptures, which were composed from 500 B.C.E. onwards, are called smriti (or remembered) texts. Based on tradition, this smriti literature is considered to be valid for all devout Hindus insofar as it does not contradict the shruti texts which, as a direct revelation from God, retain supreme authority. 

There are a number of smriti texts containing codes of conduct for various classes of people at different stages of life, and old myths and legends dealing with the worship of the later deities, particularly Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and representing the practical aspects of popular Hinduism. Shiva is the destroyer of the world, following Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver, after which Brahma again creates the world and so on. Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of the shedding of old habits. 

Prominent among the smriti texts are the great Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Mahabharata, which was composed over a period of many hundreds of years, probably beginning about four hundred B.C.E., contains 100,000 verses in eighteen books, around the central narrative of which are woven many stories with a moral message. The central story of the Mahabharata is a story of the battle between good and evil, as represented by a war between the Kuru princes and their cousins, the five sons of King Pandu, over right of succession to the throne. 

The Bhagavad-Gita (or Song of the Lord) is a philosophical text of seven hundred verses which occurs in the sixth book of the Mahabharata. It tells the story of Arjuna, the third son of King Pandu, and his brother-in-law, Krishna, who was the king of a neighbouring country but who had volunteered to act as Arjuna’s charioteer during the great war. On the eve of battle, Arjuna, seeing his kinsman ready to fight him, is filled with remorse at the thought of killing his relatives to gain a kingdom, and he turns to his charioteer for advice. It is Lord Krishna’s advice concerning moral and religious values and man’s relation to God that forms the text of the Bhagavad-Gita. 

The Ramayana, the other prominent smriti text, developed from a popular folk ballad about Prince Rama, an obedient son, devoted husband, dutiful king, affectionate brother, brave warrior and magnanimous conqueror. At one point in his adventures, Prince Rama is aided by the monkey-headed general, Hanuman, in searching for his kidnapped wife, Sita; and Hanuman, along with the elephant-headed god, Ganesha, has become a minor but important deity in the Hindu religion. 

If you ask the Hindu people you meet which ones are their favourite Hindu gods and goddesses, you will get very diverse answers, with Ganesha, Shiva, Hanuman, Durga, Lakshmi and many other Hindu gods and Goddesses named. From the point of view of most other mono-theistic religions, this smacks of polytheism. However, if then you ask the same people how their favourite Hindu gods and goddesses relate to other Hindu gods and goddesses, you will usually get the same answer : “Well, of course, all Hindu gods and goddesses are the same god or divine energy, nameless and without form, but this is the form (or these are the forms) in which I like to worship my Hindu gods and goddesses best.” 

Hinduism provides several other important religious paths through which Hindus may approach God, in addition to this path of worship (Bhakti or devotion) described above. Included among these are: 

1. The path of Karma (or action): Through selfless activity one may approach God. 

2. The path of Jnana or Gyana (or knowledge): Through a clear understanding of the scriptures, it is felt that people can free themselves from their attachments to the material world and reach a higher spiritual plain.

3. The path of Yoga, of which there are several different kinds:

– Dhyana Yoga emphasizes meditation.

– Raja Yoga stresses the spiritual discipline of deep contemplation of Brahman.

– Hatha Yoga, the path of physical self-discipline.

– Mudra Yoga, the path of channeling life force

– etc.

In each case, when success is achieved, the mind is liberated from anger, fear, sadness, lust, greed, envy, and so on, and finds a one-ness with God. 

As you can hear, the stories in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are quite fanciful – imagine, for example, Hanuman, the monkey-headed general and the elephant-headed god Ganesha. But then you might remember the story of Balaam’s ass, from the 22nd chapter of Numbers: 

[Num 22:21] And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 

[Num 22:22] And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.

[Num 22:23] And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.

[Num 22:24] But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.

[Num 22:25] And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.

[Num 22:26] And the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.

[Num 22:27] And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.

[Num 22:28] And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?

[Num 22:29] And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.

[Num 22:30] And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.

[Num 22:31] Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.

Then there are the stories that form the major part of our scriptures, stories of the Virgin Birth, Christ’s miracles, the resurrection, and so on. Spong and Pagels are the names that come to mind as having argued that these and many of our other favourite Bible stories are literally beyond belief. I would argue, in contrast, that they are only beyond belief if taken literally; and beliefs such as this don’t have to be taken literally. In fact, not all of the church’s teaching, either through scripture or tradition, were even intended to be either taken as either literally or historically correct. Most Bible stories were intended to illustrate a principle. Probably the best example of this is Jesus’ parables, as discussed in the 13th chapter of Matthew:

[Mat 13:10] And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 

[Mat 13:11] He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

[Mat 13:12] ….

[Mat 13:13] Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

…

[Mat 13:34] All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

[Mat 13:35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.