Ghosts

Synopsis

A review of  Permanent Record by American author Edward Snowden (b. 1983)

• Paul:   Steal 📚
• Matthew:  Steal 📚

A review of  Frankenstein by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851)

• Paul:   Steal 📚
• Matthew:  Steal 📚

A review of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by American author Washington Irving (1783–1859)

• Paul:   Steal 📚
• Matthew: 

A review of Henrietta & Eleanor: A Retelling Of Jekyll and Hyde adapted by Libby Spurrier from Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

• Paul:   Burn 🔥
• Matthew:  

A Bible Study on Ghosts

Introduction

By Paul Anderson

Grandma Ghost by Paul Anderson

It all started in August 2023.  My son was having me read Permanent Record.  Edward Snowden wrote his 2019 autobiography about how his life lead up to the leaking of highly classified information in 2013 that revealed government-run, computer-surveillance programs.

The generations to come would have to get used to a world in which surveillance wasn’t something occasional and directed in legally justified circumstances, but a constant and indiscriminate presence: the ear that always hears, the eye that always sees, a memory that is sleepless and permanent.

He painted a picture of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four come to life, where the government finally spent the money and gather the people to make Big Brother possible. 

But listen: It’s one thing to casually say, in a science-fiction dystopic type of way, that a government can theoretically see and hear everything that all of its citizens are doing. It’s a very different thing for a

government to actually try to implement such a system. What a science-fiction writer can describe in a sentence might take the concerted work of thousands of technologists and millions of dollars of equipment.

I guess I liked his story since we had a lot in common.  He grew up in the 1980s, a time before the internet.  He fought with his older sister and his dad was an engineer.  I remember typing in the transfer protocols 😵‍💫 to email chess moves to my dad and sister.  He liked his burger without vegetables.  A burger is always better minus veggies! 🚫🍅🧅 I got mine ketchup only.

"Ultimately, the only head of state that proved sympathetic to my cause was Burger King, who never denied me a Whopper (hold the tomato and onion)."

It was an enjoyable read, but there was a price to pay.  Now, I am in the system! 👁 

"If at any point during your journey through this book you paused for a moment over a term you wanted to clarify or investigate further and typed it into a search engine—and if that term happened to be in some way suspicious, a term like XKEYSCORE, for example—then congrats: you’re in the system, a victim of your own curiosity."

What is XKEYSCORE?  Edward Snowden describes it this way:

My ultimate destination, I knew, was the exact point of this interface—the exact point where the state cast its eye on the human and the human remained unaware.  The program that enabled this access was called XKEYSCORE, which is perhaps best understood as a search engine that lets an analyst search through all the records of your life. Imagine a kind of Google that instead of showing pages from the public Internet returns results from your private email, your private chats, your private files, everything.

I regret nothing.  Being in the system is a small price to pay to be able to warn my readers about the dangers of downloading his book.  Of course, even reading this blog has already put you in jeopardy.  Be sure to burn this blog after reading, and I promise not to tell anyone you were here.

In addition, Permanent Record gave me a couple of ideas for my reading list.  One was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Courtship Of Miles Standish since we are both grandchildren of pilgrims.  The other was Frankenstein.

In the Intelligence Community, the “Frankenstein effect” is widely cited, though the more popular military term for it is “blowback”: situations in which policy decisions intended to advance American interests end up harming them irreparably.

I read Frankenstein to my son as a child (while listening to Pink Floyd) since I bought the book for an English Literature class I took in college but never read.  Mary Shelley wrote what can be called the first science-fiction novel in 1818 about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made when the creature rebels against and seeks revenge on his maker for abandoning him.  The title page includes a quote from John Milton's (1608–1674) Paradise Lost:

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mold me man? Did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?”

Now that I have read it a second time, I realize Frankenstein is basically the story of someone writing a story of someone telling a story of someone else telling a story.  These nested narratives cover Mary Shelley telling Captain Walton's narrative, who tells Victor Frankenstein's narrative who, in turn, tells the Creature's narrative.

Victor Frankenstein is the mad-scientist with an honorable intention.  He wanted to help mankind by being able to restore the ghost to a man rather just giving it up (Job 14:10).  Unfortunately, he only was able to raise one devil before he realized his ambitions were mad.

What glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!  Nor were these my only visions. The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the fulfilment of which I most eagerly sought.

Another example of good intentions gone horribly wrong is when my mom needed some rain protection to watch her grand-daughter's college soccer game.  Her vision was to have a device that would shed water, allow her to view the game, and breathe freely.  Talk about the Frankenstein Effect, her creation nearly killed her daughter with laughter!

Since Frankenstein didn't last the entire month of October, I decided to finish the month with a couple more ghost stories.  One was good; one was bad.  

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an entertaining short story about Ichabod Crane, who likes to read about the history of witches by Cotton Mathers.  Ichabod tries to court the farmer's daughter, but he is sent home alone for his fateful encounter with the Headless Horseman, who was decapitated by a cannonball, and is never seen again.

For, as she sagely observed, ducks and geese are foolish things, and must be looked after, but girls can take care of themselves.

Henrietta & Eleanor: A Retelling Of Jekyll and Hyde is more like a radio play than a story, and it does little service to Robert Louis Stevenson original.  The book is much better.  However, I did learn from the British cast that "Not a sausage," was an expression. 

All these stories made me wonder if there are any ghosts stories in the Bible.

Here are my top 12 verses on Ghost:

Jesus On Ghost

Matthew 14:25-29 King James Version

25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

Mark 15:37-39 King James Version

37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Luke 24:33-39 King James Version

33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,

34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

John 14:26 King James Version

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Ghost In The New Testament

Acts 2:38 King James Version

38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

2 Timothy 1:13-14 King James Version

13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

2 Peter 1:21 King James Version

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

1 John 5:7-8 King James Version

7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Ghost In The Old Testament

Genesis 25:8 King James Version

8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

1 Samuel 28:8-19 King James Version

8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.

9 And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

10 And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.

11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.

12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.

13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.

14 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.

15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.

16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

17 And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David:

18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day.

19 Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.

Job 14:10 King James Version

10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

Isaiah 29:4 King James Version

4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.

Conclusion Of The Whole Matter

Yes, indeed, there are ghost stories in the Bible.  In the Old Testament, King Saul goes to a spirit medium to raise up the ghost of the prophet Samuel.  And she does!  Although the ghost is not happy to have be rousted from his slumber.  In the New Testament, the disciples think Jesus is a ghost when he comes to them walking on water and when he appears to them after the resurrection.

The word "ghost" is often used in the expression "gave up the ghost" to mean death.  It occurs in both the Old and New Testament.  The word is also translated familiar spirit, which might imply that ghosts are the spirits of people that are known to the observer.

However, the most common use of "ghost" in the King James Version is Holy Ghost.  Holy Ghost occurs 89 times of the 97 times ghost is used in the New Testament, but is not used once in the Old Testament.  Although, the occurrence in 1 John 5:8 does not appear in manuscripts before the fourteenth century.  The reason that the Holy Ghost is only a New Testament phenomenon is that it was also known as the Comforter and was not received until after Jesus was glorified (John 7:39).

108 Bible results for “ghost” from King James Version.

• Old Testament (11)
• Genesis (4)
• Job (5)
• Jeremiah (1)
• Lamentations (1)
• New Testament (97)
• Matthew (7)
• Mark (6)
• Luke (12)
• John (5)
• Acts (44)
• Romans (5)
• 1 Corinthians (3)
• 2 Corinthians (2)
• 1 Thessalonians (2)
• 2 Timothy (1)
• Titus (1)
• Hebrews (5)
• 1 Peter (1)
• 2 Peter (1)
• 1 John (1)
• Jude (1)

Scripture contributions for October 2023 by: Paul Anderson, Matthew Anderson