When I heard that Salman Rushdie’s assassin was only 24, the scripture came to mind
:
“The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”.
Li’l Hadi Matar, of New Jersey, wasn’t even born until ten years after Ayatollah Khomeni issued a fatwa against Rushdie.
Who in New Jersey taught him this vengeance, this blood creed? [edit: he’s an immigrant from Iran. Well, that’s SOME consolation. Or is it?]
I looked up the verse. The Bible apparently mentions this in other places, as a well-known proverb, in wide currency at the time the prophets were writing. But the entire context of Jeremiah 31:29-30 (KJV) is thus:
“In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eaten the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.”
If ONLY.
I hate to say it but —Jeremiah wasn’t much of a prophet, or t least, he’s takin’ a loooong view of history and we haven’t seen the fruition of it yet.
Witness young Hadi.
Witness Critical Race theory: surely, collective punishment even unto the third and fourth generations has reached its apogee therein.
For Rushdie, thoughts and prayers—and tears, I’m crying for him tonight.
And вs for Jeremiah— from your mouth to God’s ear, as they used to say. Yeah I know it’s s’posed to be the other way around, but: Bring it ON already.