Old in the New

Van Halen & the Epistle of James - "Fire in the Hole"

The Epistle of James in pop culture seems to be a fitting topic for this blog, and recently such a reference to the strawy epistle showed up on the blog, "Colossians 3:16." There, Terry Mattingly's new book, Pop Goes Religion is highlighted. Mattingly describes an overt reference to James 3 by the glam-metal group, Van Halen, in the song "Fire in the Hole" off of the Van Halen III album:

there's a fire in the hole
fire in the hole
there's a fire in the hole, fire

rudder of ship, which sets the course
does not the bit, bridle the horse
great is the forest, set by a small flame
like a tongue on fire, no one can tame

As Mattingly says, "it doesn't take a degree in New Testament studies" to see the connection with James 3 in the last stanza. The title of the song itself is a referent to v. 6:

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Gary Cherone (once a member of the band and co-author of this song) is a Christian and intentionally made reference to James (see Mattingly, Pop Goes Religion, pp. 2-3).

Labels: Epistle_of_James, humor

posted by jdarlack @ 2.8.06