Ulysses…and The Bible

When I was but a tike, it was commonplace to study the Bible’s two testaments as mirror images of one another. Happily, like much of ‘50s culture, this practice has fallen by the wayside. But resuscitate it, if only for a moment, not for its theology but for its physics. 

As Roman Catholics, we were taught that the Old Testament (OT) reflected the New Testament (NT). Events in NT matter – a lot; events in OT exist primarily as signs, prophesies, forerunners, ‘types’ of events to come (NT). 

We were not encouraged to consider the equally attractive (or unattractive) possibility that the New Testament might be a reflection of the Old. And yet that most certainly is the case! The Gospel of Matthew in particular takes great pains to demonstrate exactly how NT events fulfilled OT prophecies.

The key, of course, is who’s had a bit too much to drink and who’s driving the car. Critics of Christianity have suggested that the synoptic gospels are a mostly fabricated attempt to show that Jesus of Nazareth possessed the characteristics of the Messiah as spelled out in the Old Testament. 

There is no doubt that OT Jews were concerned with the coming of a Messiah. Less certain are the characteristics of this Messiah and whether Jesus of Nazareth ticked all the boxes.

It is likely that at least some of the events reported in the synoptic gospels are historical, but it is certain that the NT reporting of those events (e.g. in Matthew) is selective and explicitly intended to draw a connection with the so-called ‘prophecies’ (OT). The question is, how much is history and how much is spin?  

And then, of course, there are the brave few who deny any significant cross fertilization between the two anthologies. They attribute alleged correspondences to a combination of coincidence (dubious) and the overactive imaginations of commentators (undoubted).

So, I’ve offered three theories of how the two testaments might relate: →, ø, ←. Could there be others? For example, what if patterns in OT and NT resonate just because certain patterns are found more or less everywhere, more or less all the time? 

In such a world, everything is prophesy and everything fulfills prophecy. The World is massively self-referential. There is a semantic web that ties all events together. Everything signifies; everything is signified. Everything is a sign “we are here to read” (Joyce), fulfilling past prophecies and prophesying things to come. 

In Ulysses, James Joyce set out to show how the archetypal patterns of Western Civilization can resonate with the events of a single day in Dublin. Specifically, he highlighted the parallels between the events of June 16, 1904 and Odysseus’ pan-Aegean cruise recounted by Homer. 

There is no suggestion that events in 1904 CE were ‘caused’ by events in 994 BCE, or vice versa. They are reflections of one another, and reflection is not vectored – it’s reciprocal…by definition. Time’s iron clad tyranny is overthrown. It is as true to say that B → A as it is to say that A → B, which is to say it’s not very true at all. A neither causes B nor is caused by it. 

A is a pattern, B is a pattern, and perhaps not surprisingly, the two patterns exhibit far greater congruence than mere ‘coincidence’ could possibly explain. More surprisingly, the two patterns exhibit greater congruence than even ‘causation’ can predict. Causality is not conformity. An effect only occasionally resembles its cause. Correlation is an entirely unique mode of connection among events. 

But the World is not bi-polar. It’s more than just 20th century Dublin and 10th century (BCE) Ithaca. In Dublin life, Joyce detects incipient harmonies with various cultures, enshrined in different media. While events in Ireland reprise events in the Aegean, they also reflect other patterns, e.g. Roman Catholic Liturgy (the ‘Mass’) and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. 

History, liturgy, poetry, fact and fiction, co-exist for Joyce in a cosmic ouroboros ∞.  Pattern is substructure. Tangible events, performances, etc. are ‘accidents’; they are epiphenomenal. Joyce is agnostic when it comes to time, place, or medium. Pattern is everything. Most of us study events and notice patterns, Joyce studied patterns and noticed events.  

Read Ulysses. For about 2 weeks after, your world will be enchanted. Every bird’s song, every street’s sign will have been curated specifically for you. A name in a newspaper headline connects to a 4th century theologian. Everything is everywhere all at once, until it isn’t. A mystical experience induced by literature!

We only know what we can see. The final editors of the Old Testament (500 – 200 BCE) reflected on the world as they lived it. Likewise, the New Testament authors (50 – 100 CE). What is remarkable is the congruence between events in 1st century CE and events that occurred 500 to 2000 years earlier. 

Consider the scope. Our story begins in Mesopotamia c. 2000 BCE, moves to Canaan, then on to sunny Egypt, back to Canaan, off to Babylon…and home again. At every stop, OT Jews had to defend their faith against the polytheistic and pagan tribes of the Middle East; NT Jews (including proto-Christians) were locked in a struggle with Greco-Roman culture. And yet, patterns endure, linking a dimly remembered past to a vaguely imagined future and giving laser-like clarity to both. 

Pattern is the annihilation of time. It brings everything into focus, it’s what’s left over. It’s what endures after history has done its worst; it’s where the past, the present, and the future sit around a barrel fire singing Kumbaya. 

Folks asked Jesus for a sign. Pattern is ‘the sign’, the triumph of order over entropy. Signs point to patterns, but pattern is the sign pointing to the Kingdom of God. 

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