From Exodus to Austen

 

Photo by Dominika Walczak on Unsplash

 When did you last read the book of Exodus? 

 If you did, I have a feeling that you didn't pay attention to the conjunctions? The what? you may be asking me. Conjunction. A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause (e.g. and, but, if).

Maybe children now learn about them at school, but it was only a few months ago that I actually learnt what they were called and the value of them.  

 No it wasn't though a writing class, it was though a book called Grasping God's Word by J. Duvall and J. Hays, which is the core text for a module I'm taking for my Diploma in Theology, Ministry and Mission. One of the modules I'm taking is Bible in Context, and it is absolutely fascinating. 

So, back to conjunctions, as I'm sure you are dying to know which one I'm focused on? And the one I'm focused on is..... but. 

So, one of my assignments in this module is to perform a deep hermeneutics on a passage of Scripture, and the passage I've gone for is one that was suggested by the tutor - Exodus 33:12-23. Not as well known as Exodus 3:1-4 - Moses and the Burning Bush or Exodus 14, the parting of the Red Sea, but deeply interesting all the same. 

It concerns Moses meeting with God in the Tent of Meeting, shortly after the whole worshipping the Golden Calf nightmare, and Moses is asking God if his presence will go with them. What caught my attention, mainly because it was one of the things that the book suggests you look out for as you do a deeper look into Scripture was the three times that the word 'but' was used. 

First it's when it appears that Moses clearly hadn't been listening to God when he says in V.12  'You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me' because God said that he's going to send an angel ahead of them, but for Moses that's not enough, he wants more of God's presence, and that's exactly what God wants to hear, because he loves it when we want to spend time with him, but at the same time, the Israelites sinned, so God couldn't go with them, yet. The ones that most caught my attention were in v. 20 'But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”' and 23 'Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”' To me, it's similar to a thriller, where the hero is close to getting to their goal yet the enemy has a condition that must be met. 'Of course you may marry my daughter, but only if you become a doctor' or 'The treasure is all yours, Professor Jones, but you have to kill me to get the key.' 

As this blog is focussed on writers, I thought I'd Google to see where conjunctions have famously appeared in novels and it appears that our friend Jane Austen used them in Mansfield Park.  Twenty-one “ands,” six “ors,” and one “but.” Lynn Festa, a specialist in eighteenth-century British and French literature had this to say on a guest post on conjunctions in Chapter 17 of Mansfield Park. 

Conjunctions both join and sunder: they yoke individual words or the separate clauses of a sentence together, but they are also physically interposed between the parts they are supposed to unite. And I love this mysterious sentence about the power of that little word 'and' 'And” is an unstable bond in a world in which couples keep turning into triangles.

And if want to post this blog post on time, sadly that's where I'll have to leave it, but I feel this post will definitely warrant a sequel as this dip into the mystery of conjunctions as whetted my appetite. 

 I'd love to hear in the comments or on Facebook if you've noticed conjunctions in your reading or the power of them in your writing. 

 Until next time, your fellow writer, 

 Martin  

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional and four flash fiction anthologies.  He's currently trying to finish his first novel.