Readers Reply

No More Naked Women

I do not like the pictures of naked women to illustrate the Book of Enoch (“The Strange Visions of Enoch,” BR 03:02). Even assuming that the sons of God does refer to fallen angels (of which I am still not convinced), does it need to be illustrated? Would it be necessary to draw a picture of David and Bathsheba to get the picture of what happened?

I do appreciate your magazine and realize you publish a wide variety of opinion, but I believe the Bible, although I do not understand it completely.

Murphy-O’Connor’s “Hatchet Job” on the Gospels

My initial reaction after reading Jerome Murphy-O’Connor’s adept “scissor work’ on the Transfiguration accounts was, “What a pity that the poor, ignorant Bible readers of the last 1,900 years did not have the benefit of the esoteric insights in that marvelous modern discipline called literary criticism!” What is amazing to me is that the modern literary critic knows far more about the biblical events than the disciples who witnessed them. Really now, don’t you agree that it takes far more faith to believe O’Connor’s elaborate reconstruction than it does to believe Matthew, Mark and Luke?