{"id":1399,"date":"2014-10-14T08:50:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T13:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2021-08-02T10:26:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:26:25","slug":"studying-scripture-superheroes-the-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/studying-scripture-superheroes-the-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying Scripture with CW\u2019s The Flash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The new CW series <em>The Flash<\/em> is upon us. With reports of more than 4.5 million viewers for the premiere, chances are that you or some of the people in your congregation were watching this latest show based on a DC superhero.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve discussed in <a title=\"Improving Ministry: What can we learn from Superheroes?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/improving-ministry-what-can-we-learn-from-superheroes\/\">other blogs<\/a> for Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, I\u2019ve come to<a title=\"Theology and Superheroes: Stained Glass Comics\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/theology-of-churches-mdiv-and-superheroes\/\"> love the language of superheroes<\/a>. They all have attributes that identify them regardless of the artist or medium. Flash\u2019s attributes would have to be the red suit, the lightning bolt on his chest, and the bolts on his mask\/cap.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that his attributes aren\u2019t exactly original. The lightning bolt is an easy one. It belonged to Zeus. The bolts on his cap, though, are more interesting. They look almost like wings. If you dig into the history of the Flash, they used to be wings.<\/p>\n<p>It was in January of 1940 that the Flash first got his own comic book [1]. He looked quite a bit different from the hero of the new CW show, but the beginnings of the uniform are there.<\/p>\n<p>If the hat looks familiar, that\u2019s because it didn\u2019t originally belong to the Flash. The winged helmet belonged to a mythical character named Mercury or Hermes, the son of Zeus and messenger of the gods. Not only did Hermes\u2019 attributes include a winged cap, but he was fast\u2014really fast. In fact, it was said that Hermes could move \u201cas fleet as thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So in classical mythology we find the son of lightning, wearer of a winged cap, with supernatural speed.<\/p>\n<p>The Flash is Mercury.<\/p>\n<p>Mercury is mentioned in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>That means\u2026 the Flash is in the Bible!?<\/p>\n<p>In Acts 14:8-18 we find Paul and Barnabas preaching, teaching, and healing. In the midst of their work, people mistook them for Hermes and Zeus. They assumed that Paul and Barnabas had supernatural powers because of the healings, and they figured Paul for Hermes because he did most of the talking \u2013 like a messenger would.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally Paul and Barnabas immediately did their best to correct the people. They reminded everyone that Hermes is just a character in a story. Then they proceeded to talk about the ways the Living God had been present in the lives of people throughout generations. Paul used the stories of the swift son of lightning to teach people about God.<\/p>\n<p>So why not do the same?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not talking about a sustained campaign over the next six months, but when you overhear people mention that they watched it, follow Paul\u2019s example. Here\u2019s how you can teach a one-shot Bible study on the Flash. Read Acts 14 and talk about the connections between Flash and Mercury\/Hermes. There are plenty of pictures all over the Internet that would be fun to show. Then ask people to talk about the ways God has impacted their lives in real ways.<\/p>\n<p>By the time you\u2019re done, people will know more about the book of Acts. They\u2019ll also know more about how God is at work in their own lives and the lives of those around them\u2014all thanks to the Flash.<\/p>\n<p>[1] Relax superfans. I know Jay and Barry aren\u2019t the same people. I\u2019m just claiming that the \u201cBarry Flash&#8221; developed from the \u201cJay Flash\u201d artistically, not canonically.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Rev. Derek Davenport \u201905\/&#8217;17 <\/em><em>is a PTS alumnus of the Master of Divinity (MDiv) Program and Master of Sacred Theology (ThM), between which he served at a church in Orlando, Fla., for five years. Derek also participated the Seminary&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/SYI\">Miller Summer Youth Institute<\/a>. He serves as a preacher in Western Pennsylvania, researches <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingsymbols.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">church symbolism<\/a>\u00a0on his\u00a0<\/em><em>website,<\/em><em>\u00a0and tweets at\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DerekRDavenport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>@DerekRDavenport<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new CW series The Flash is upon us. With reports of more than 4.5 million viewers for the premiere, chances are that you or some of the people in your congregation were watching this latest show based on a DC superhero. As I\u2019ve discussed in other blogs for Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, I\u2019ve come to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[57,58,59],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","tag-comic-books","tag-the-flash","tag-theology-and-superheroes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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