{"id":962,"date":"2009-12-29T13:34:23","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T13:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/12\/defaced.html"},"modified":"2009-12-29T13:34:23","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T13:34:23","slug":"defaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/12\/defaced.html","title":{"rendered":"Defaced"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hatshepsut_art_02.jpg\"<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>The statue
\nstood sentinel,<\/p>\n

            <\/span>But had no
\nstaring eyes,<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Defaced by
\nvicious vandals<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The royal
\nline despised.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Erasures
\nare too common,<\/p>\n

            <\/span>As if our
\npasts weren’t past<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Enough with
\nmere mortality<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The memory
\nmust not last.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>The student
\nof antiquity<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Engaged in
\nsaving face<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Resurrects
\nthe past<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Restores
\nthe memory’s place<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Yet still he
\nmust now face it<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Not all can
\nbe retrieved<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The names,
\nthe places, times<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Some gone
\nforever, grieved. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Face off
\nthe Gnostic nonsense<\/p>\n

            <\/span>That laughs
\nat history’s ghosts<\/p>\n

            <\/span>As if the
\ntruth could be conveyed<\/p>\n

            <\/span>By timeless
\nspiritual hosts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Facile
\nfacsimiles<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Do not
\npresent the past,<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Do not
\novercome amnesia<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Do not help
\na legacy last.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Pale copies
\nof originals<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Foolscap,
\nfolio<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Electronic
\neditions<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Are not the
\nway to go.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When names become mere numbers<\/p>\n

            <\/span>And numbers
\nbank accounts<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Then all our
\ndays are numbered<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Discarded discounts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>When
\nHatshepsut was Pharaoh<\/p>\n

            <\/span>The axis turned
\nright round <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Reversing
\nthe long history<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Reverberations
\nstill resound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>No vandal
\ncould erase her<\/p>\n

            <\/span>In ex post
\nfacto way<\/p>\n

            <\/span>She’s made eternal
\ndifference<\/p>\n

            <\/span>She had her
\nday and say.<\/p>\n

            <\/span>            <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>Defacing
\ndismembers us<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Dislocates
\ntimes and places<\/p>\n

            <\/span>And we
\nshall not recover <\/p>\n

            <\/span>Until we
\nhave new faces.  <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>When Mary
\nwas a virgin<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Deep within
\nher womb<\/p>\n

            <\/span>There was
\nthe face of God<\/p>\n

            <\/span>With eyes
\nthat could consume.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/span>He saw right
\nthrough the pretense<\/p>\n

            <\/span>He looked
\ninto our eyes<\/p>\n

            <\/span>He shone
\nhis light of glory<\/p>\n

            <\/span>Refacing
\nall our lives. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dec. 29th<\/sup> 2009   BW3<\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>  <\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              The statue stood sentinel,             But had no staring eyes,             Defaced by vicious vandals             The royal line despised.               Erasures are too common,             As if our pasts weren’t past             Enough with mere mortality             The memory must not last.               The student of antiquity             Engaged in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDefaced - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/12\/defaced.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defaced - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}