Discussion Main / RuleOfSymbolism

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused, started by spellraiser on Jul 10th 2012 at 6:39:26 PM

I deleted this from the Real Life section:

• And that's just the Roman perspective. Consider the Jewish perspective: crucifixion is hanging a man on a tree until dead. The Torah says, "God's curse is on the one who hangs upon a tree." Thus, to be hung on a tree was the most horrible fate imaginable to a Jew, because it meant being cursed by God. In Jesus' case, the New Testament accepts this notion and uses it in light of Isaiah 53: "It was our iniquities He bore, and by His stripes we are healed." Therefore, the position of the New Testament is that God's curse DID fall upon Jesus while He was on the Cross (which is why He said, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?") but that's because He took the curse of our sins onto Himself.

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Because it is inaccurate for a number of reasons. First, that is not what the Torah says (it's a deliberate mistranslation of Devarim 21:23). Second, that is not the Jewish perspective on hanging and curses; it is a misinformed/deliberate misinterpretation Christian perspective being attributed to the Jewish perspective. And third, it immediately shows that misinterpretation by tying in Jewish texts to an explicitly Christian viewpoint.

Giving an explanation here in the hope of preventing an edit war, here's the context and translation of the text in question from a Jewish perspective :

22 If a man commits a sin for which he is sentenced to death, and he is put to death, you shall [then] hang him on a pole.

23 But you shall not leave his body on the pole overnight. Rather, you shall bury him on that [same] day, for a hanging [human corpse] is a blasphemy of God, and you shall not defile your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

Note that it has nothing to do with hanging as an execution method or a curse on the executed. It is instead an injunction against the display of the bodies of executed persons for more than a single day; the bodies are to be taken down and promptly buried instead of being left out for exposure. If this was not done, it would defile the LAND, not the person whose body has been left out.

So this section is Not the Jewish perspective—it is a Christian misinterpretation of a passage with a very specific meaning. (As a side note, this very injunction is actually observed in the context of the execution of Jesus in the Christian bible; after he is dead on the cross, rather than leave the body up to be picked at by scavengers and exposed to the elements, which would have been the usual fate for a crucified body, his followers immediately take him down and bury him).

How can this have the alternative name Symbolism? It says quite clearly there in the beginning that it means when something that doesn't otherwise make sense is allowed to remain because of symbolism... so if some symbolism doesn't stretch the willing suspension of disbelief, it's not this. I think we need a real trope for just symbolism.

Does this have any connection to Grandfather Clause?