When I was a kid, I remember being taught about Paul Bunyan. Do you? Statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox can be found in different parts of the country, the oldest being in Minnesota. Have you ever visited one of those statues? What do you remember about Paul Bunyan? Check out this video for a refresher.
Why do we have Paul Bunyan stories? Why do we tell the stories to children? He was not an historical figure, after all – so why get so much attention?
Paul Bunyan’s stories are an example of American Folklore. The stories are of historical interest because of their enduring popularity which also shed light on the aspirational values espoused by the those who created and shared the stories. Paul Bunyan stories were more than entertainment around a logging campfire – he was a reminder of the American spirit and therefore an inspiration to follow, all offered in a memorable, fantastic package.
There are stories in the Bible that work the same way. The first six chapters of the Book of Daniel are looked upon by leading scholars as Jewish folklore – the factuality of whether or not a literal Daniel and his friends existed is not really where the power of the story lies. One scholar notes:
“Although some of the court details seem, at first sight, to be impressive, most scholars argue that the Daniel stories as well as the stories of his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are fictional accounts that represent the folklore of the diaspora communities. Furthermore, these details are something that a healthy imagination could create, drawing from the gossip and speculation of the surrounding peoples under Persian occupation. There was similar speculation about the pomp and circumstance of the Persian court among the Greeks as well” (Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, “The Book of Daniel,” In New Interpreter’s Bible, edited by Leander E. Keck, Vol. I–XII. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994–2004).
This may be disturbing for some readers who have been taught to believe that the stories in the Bible – if they are not clearly labeled as parable – must be factually accurate. That perspective is historically new, however, and does not reflect the earliest understanding of biblical texts held by our Jewish ancestors generally and Jesus specifically. The real power of the stories we will look at over the next several weeks is not about God miraculously saving people from burning alive in a fiery furnace or from hungry lions, or about dream revelation and interpretation. The stories didn’t resonate with the earliest Jews for that reason, but for quite another: subversion.
While the context of the Daniel stories in chapters 1-6 places him centuries before the birth of Jesus, the stories actually circulated and developed throughout those centuries and finally became organized a century or so before Jesus was born, when the Roman Empire was gaining control of the Mesopotamian region. What we think of as Israel today was a piece of land that ran with blood throughout its history. Once scholar estimates that somewhere around 200 wars took place on its soil during the time the Jewish people lived there before the Common Era. The stories in Daniel resonated with the Jewish people because every storyteller and hearer only knew what it was like to live in an occupied land. For hundreds of years, the name of the empire changed from the Assyrians to the Babylonians to the Persians to the Hellenists and finally to the Romans. Israel was an organized, unified country with clear governmental structure for fewer years than the United States has survived. There were only a few kings who presided over the unified nation before it divided and eventually fell apart. The Book of Daniel was popular – and subversive – because it shared stories of how to live in occupation while honoring their culture and religion and challenging their oppressors.
The first chapter tells the story of how Daniel and company got to the foreign kingdom in the first place – they were removed from Israel! Exiled. Not their choice. Once in the new land, they were put through a program which sought to erase their sense of identity as Jews while giving them new identities to go along with their new zip code. Thus, they were given new, non-Jewish names. These are not cool new nicknames – this is removing their very names, similar to what took place in American slavery. Sometimes the occupation empires are cast in a favorable light which may give a false impression that being in exile isn’t so bad. That would be a mistake. The stories we will explore are life-and-death-on-the-line stories. Those in exile have no rights – their lives hung in the balance.
The first act of non-violent resistance we encounter in the Daniel tale has to do with his diet. He refused to eat the food provided by the court because it apparently violated his faith commitment (pulled pork sandwiches, perhaps?). Refusing to eat was to risk his life. He asked for a trial period to see if his diet would produce better health performance results than the local fare. It turned out that it did. Daniel’s diet won the day. This may seem innocuous to our eyes, but it wasn’t. This was an act of defiance, an act of rebellion, and in this case the powerless Jew outsmarted the Babylonians who held all the power.
Most of those who are reading this are not in an exile like that experienced by Daniel. We have not been forcibly removed from our homes and taken to a different land and required to abandon everything we hold dear – even our names – and required to embrace a new culture. Yet we can still relate to Daniel because when we choose to follow Jesus, we follow him into a type of exile. The exile isn’t anywhere near as harsh as that experienced by our faith ancestors, but ours, like theirs, requires us to be thoughtful about the choices we make as people living in this world but not of this world. The Way of Jesus is different than the dominant culture in which we live.
My guess is that there are some attitudes and behaviors that have crept into your life that you know don’t really fit with Jesus’ Way. Can you name them? I am certain that all of us who have been born and raised in the United States have adopted some “isms” that don’t fully fit with the ethos of Jesus. Capitalism. Consumerism. Militarism. Racism. Sexism. Classism. What other “isms” would you add? These are often unchecked, and we end up looking more like the “isms” than we do Jesus. We typically don’t check them unless something bad happens that wakes us up or when we choose to actually study the Way of Jesus and adopt it.
Here’s a challenge for you: for the next week, drop at least one the attitudes and behaviors you know are incongruent with the Way of Jesus. Be aware of what makes the dropping difficult – what pressures are keeping you stuck in unhealthy patterns? What will replace what you’ve let go? Some of the things you will drop are heavily supported by our culture – especially things related to consumerism. We are constantly barraged with commercials encouraging us to buy new stuff and eat unhealthy stuff all the time. Record your experience so that you can learn from it. Are you up for this subversive Daniel challenge?