Logos and Literacy: A Tour Through The History Of The World’s Most Significant Book

Here is a transcriber excerpt from Jordan Peterson’s series Logos & Literacy. You can watch DailyWire+ offers the best deal

Episode Time: 00.05

Jordan Peterson

Some might wonder why I am so concerned about making the Bible history more accessible to the general public. A story is a way to see the world. Story is the description of how the world works, the order in which it’s viewed, the priorities we set, and the actions that we take. Because you have many options, your actions can be very different. This means that it must have a purpose, a destination and a moral. An example of an ethic which prioritizes potential and action is called a story. Peace depends on us all being united under the umbrella of one centralizing narrative. Much of this metanarrative can be found in the Biblical library. This is the story of the most important book in the world. I hope that you find it enjoyable.

Chapter 1: Museum of the Bible

At first, I didn’t know what to do. A northern Albertan cynic I imagined the Museum of the Bible to be some kind of backwoods fundamentalist venture. But that proved unbelievably false. I did not really understand until I walked through the museum — or I did not understand as deeply as I might have — how key the Bible was to the spread of literacy around the world.

Brian Hyland (curator Medieval manuscripts),:

Brian Hyland is my name. As the Museum of the Bible’s associate curator of medieval manuscripts, I also serve as the chief of the Middle Ages Section. This means that I have the opportunity to work with manuscripts from Western Europe between the years 800 and the 1550s.

We enter the fourth floor, the history of Bible. There is a large mural in front of our eyes that encapsulates all of the Bible’s history. The Great Isaiah Scroll can be seen to the left. This scroll is one of Dead Sea Scrolls and represents Hebrew original texts. On its right is what we refer to as the Bodner Psalms. The Bodner Psalms are actually a codex — so the idea of a modern, kind of hardcover book. To the left of this is a medieval Psalter. The Rice Psalter is a Latin text of the 15th century. It is the manuscript tradition. It is right next to the Gutenberg Bible. From manuscript to printing, and then the impact of the printer’s press. Below the Gutenberg you will see a leaf taken from the King James Bible. The late 20th century and the early 21st century saw printing dominate the world. A cell phone is the symbol for where we stand today. Someone has an app for the Bible in Korean written using Hangul script on their cell phone.

Jordan Peterson

You can browse the Bible verse-by–verse online with up to 50 translations. It is so interesting to see the different interpretations of the translations because it fleshes out the connotations and the poetic allusions in the text — and cross-references as well.

Brian Hyland 

This means that the Bible can be read today as a text reaching out. 

Keith Getty (songwriter). “In Christ Alone”):

The phone’s potential and its capabilities are all languages. It is the first time that the Bible is available in every language and dialect in the history of mankind. 

Chapter II: Logos Must Be Developed

Jordan Peterson

I have read analyses of the story of Genesis, linking it to the Mesopotamian creation myth — the story of Marduk and Tiamat. The word apparently means “word”. “Tiamat” It is what they are saying. Etymologically compatible (I think it is the correct phrase) with Hebrew phrases Tohu va-VohuThat is, the chaos God creates order from at the beginning time. This seems to be symbolically similar to Marduk’s struggle with time to create order. The Hebrew text may have been influenced by the Mesopotamian text. Or vice versa.

Brian Hyland

Because you are dealing with Hebrews within a historical setting, there will be ideas shared and different ways of seeing things. The idea behind chaos is also found in many other creation stories around the globe. It is the disordered beginning from which the order emerges. 

Keith Getty

John 1 starts with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God exists before time. He is also the creator of beauty. Truth and beauty are interconnected. The post-modernists will tell us that beauty does not exist — that it only exists in whatever you can create for yourself in life. We believe all evidence points to beauty and a Creator, God.

Brian Hyland

It is pronounced “greek” “Én árchí ín ó lógos” — “In the beginning was the Word” — which Jerome had translated as in principio era verbum. Verbum Literally, it means “a word” There are so many contexts that logos can be used in Greek.

Vishal Mangalwadi (author, Christian philosopher):

If language is to make sense, logic is to make sense — beauty, music. There has to be sense from the very root of all things. You must have sense. Logos — not just the spoken word, but also the unspoken word in the mind, which is the sense. The beginning was knowledge; the beginning was understanding. Oder, wie the Old Testament says, “In the beginning was wisdom with God.” 

For the seven remaining chapters, click here watch DailyWire+ – Logos & Literacy

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson Professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toronto, he is also a clinical psychologist. Between 1993 and 1998, he was assistant to Harvard’s associate professor of psychology. The international bestseller Maps of Meaning, Twelve Rules For Life and Beyond Order is his book. Get him now! listen To or watch He is a popular speaker on DailyWire+.

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