Derrida revived the ancient myth of Thoth, told in the Phaedrus<\/em>, according to which the invention of writing was like a fall of man. Writing things down destroyed the personalism and in-placedness of speech, and eventually would destroy memory.<\/p>\n Being a book, the Bible is understandably pro-book, and the very first reference to writing in Scripture gives us a clue to the significance of written records. After the war with Amalek, Yahweh tells Moses, \u201cWrite this as a memorial in a book and set it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven\u201d (Exodus 17:14).<\/p>\n Far from destroying memory, the account of Amalek is written to preserve memory. Records are written because memories fade, witnesses die. And since memory nourishes a the identity of a people, the dying of memory is a step toward the death of the community. A written record isn\u2019t a dead letter, but is the permanent potency to revive memory.\u00a0As long as the record of Amalek exists, there\u2019s a chance someone will take up, read, and remember.Written records make it possible for a people to survive national destruction; Torah is already a gift that will enable Israel to return from the grave of exile.\u00a0(Recall \u2013 and we can <\/i>recall only because it is written \u2013 the discovery of the law in the temple in the days of Josiah, another brief for the book.)<\/p>\n There\u2019s another side to \u201cmemorial\u201d here. Memorials in Scripture are commonly directed toward Yahweh rather than toward Israel (in the first instance). The rainbow is a covenant reminder for the Lord, and the memorial portion of a sacrifice is the portion that ascends to Him. A written record is not only a standing witness to Israel, but a witness to Yahweh. The book of Amalek is a memorial of Yahweh\u2019s determination to blot out Amalek. It\u2019s a memorial of His threat to destroy all memory of Amalek.<\/p>\n The book is given to Joshua to \u201cset in his ears.\u201d That surely means he is supposed to \u201chear\u201d it by reading or by having it read. The book is a script, a score, for the performer of a reading. Scripture doesn\u2019t set reading and speech in opposition to each other, as Derrida and Plato do. Written records exist to train new generations of speaker-singers.<\/p>\n In the context of Exodus, \u201cset it in his ears\u201d may also carry some other connotations. A permanent slave is bored in his ear lobe (Exodus 21) as a mark that his ear is forever open to his master\u2019s voice; as household servants, priests\u2019 ears are symbolically bored open (Exodus 29): They listen only to the Master of the royal tent. The book seems to have a similar function. It\u2019s an adornment to the ear, set in the ear like a ring of gold; it is given to Joshua so that Joshua can be a permanent servant of Yahweh, so the commands of his Lord can always ring fresh in his ears.\u00a0<\/p>\n (One could develop a complementary phenomenology by tracing out the import of Deuteronomy 31:19, where Moses writes a song to \u201cput it on their lips\u201d and as \u201ca witness for Me against the sons of Israel.\u201d As Scripture conceives it, the book doesn\u2019t lend itself to a purely mental faith. The book \u201csets itself\u201d or inscribes the words of the book on the body \u2013 the ear and the lip.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Derrida revived the ancient myth of Thoth, told in the Phaedrus, according to which the invention of writing was like a fall of man. Writing things down destroyed the personalism and in-placedness of speech, and eventually would destroy memory. Being a book, the Bible is understandably pro-book, and the very first reference to writing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,1181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-exodus","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\n