Third Blog Question: Response

I don’t believe the Bible has ever promised happiness and certainly not teddy bears. I’ve certainly never gotten a teddy bear anyways. The presumption that the Bible is all fluff and happiness times is a misconception. The theophany (or experience of God) that Jacob has ‘wrestling with the angel’ is a good example of that. If you look at what happens to Jacob, who gets his name changed to Isaac because he “has striven with God and with human and has prevailed,” happiness is not a direct result of his victory. No, God or the angel or whomever (the Bible isn’t really clear on that, due to how sparse the language is and using more than one term to describe the “man” throughout the story) dislocated the poor guy’s hip and because of it he limps the rest of his life. Ouch. I don’t think a new name fixes that. (Certainly needs a teddy bear now, doesn’t he?)

A lot, if not all, the theophanies I’ve read in the Bible are similar to that. Promises are made and blessings are given, but at a price. Most of the time the person’s life actually gets worse after having an experience with God. And wrestling with God is not the first encounter Jacob has with Him. He also encounters Him in the story of “Jacob’s ladder.” It’s another theophany that’s not all puppies and kittens.

The LORD stands beside Jacob and promises him that the land upon which he is sleeping he will give to him and his offspring. Jacob is afraid because he encountered God – not warm and fuzzy inside – terrified! And the promise that God makes to him? It’s totally not fulfilled in his lifetime or even in the next one. It takes a couple generations and a lot of wandering in the desert to get around to it being fulfilled through Joshua. Mind you, it does get fulfilled. Just not until after a long delay of time. Delay is a common theme in the Bible.

And these were just the Jacob-related stories in the very first book of the Bible. I’m pretty certain if you read onward there’s a lot more stories to follow involving delayed promises and unpleasant after-effects of God-meetings. When you get God all involved in your life, he really stirs the pot of stability and makes the world a more unpredictable place. Trials and tribulations never worried about before come tromping in, ready to make life more interesting. And as far as I’m aware, I haven’t read about any teddy bears in the mix.

Bible as Literature, Third Blog Question

You’ve got another friend, an agnostic/atheist, a cultured despiser, and he’s pretty bitter and sarcastic about the Bible and about religion.

You’re at the Beanery having coffee and he says something like this to you:

“You know what I really hate about the Bible? About believers? They’re so happy all the time, so confident, so clear. Nothing ever bothers them, or they think nothing ever bothers them. The Bible promises them happiness and teddy bears forevermore and they buy that. The Bible tells them exactly what God looks like and exactly what He wants them to do with their lives, and they do it. It’s disgusting.”

You say, “well, maybe you’re right. I don’t know. But we were just talking about this one ‘pericope’ in the Book of Genesis (that means a piece, a passage from scripture) and it doesn’t fit at all what you seem to think the Bible is about. It’s a story that’s sometimes called the story of Jacob ‘wrestling with the angel,’ though in fact it’s not clear that the being he wrestles with really is an angel. Anyway, let me show you the pericope and see what you think.”

Continue that conversation, talking about Genesis 32: 22-32 and exploring whatever implications you see in the passage for how the language of the Bible works (its form and style) and what it says (its apparent messages or themes or content).

Second Blog Question: Response

In response to Dane’s comments on the writer(s) of Genesis keeping the language sparse for the sake of future generations, I think I have to disagree with some of them. I think that thinking of the Bible in terms of a guide as the writer’s ultimate purpose in writing is really presumptuous, especially since there has been nothing in the actual text to imply that so far. If the Bible (or even just Genesis) had a subheading of “a guide to living,” or “a guide to making the right choices” or something, I might buy it. But it doesn’t, it’s a lot more ambiguous than that. (And I’m not trying to slam your ideas or make fun of you, Dane, just stating my own observations/opinions).

Looking at what the text is actually saying is critical, I think, in coming to conclusions about the Bible. Nowhere does it say “here is what you do in this situation.” If the writers of Genesis were anything like we are, they probably went to writing this in a similar manner as we would. Like today in class, for example, with the poetry we looked at and the stories we told about ourselves. Everything started with an image, and then progressed. We made inferences about the images, but whether that was the intention of the author or not we can’t be sure of without speaking to the author himself or having it written directly in the text. Seeing as Genesis is a book of stories and not sermons (which it is), it is more likely that they sat down with a writing utensil and an image in their head that they wanted to share (whether placed there by God or conjured by their own imagination – it doesn’t matter, that’s not the point I’m trying to make). I don’t think they thought “Hmm, what’s a good way to show obedience to God rewarded? Ahh! I know! Abraham!” And then, voila, the story of Abraham and Isaac was taken down.

It is also wise to keep in mind the culture/beliefs/influences of those writing these stories down. Since God is beyond comprehension, it would be presumptuous to write about Him as if He was understandable. They don’t even write His name out or pronounce it aloud, so sparse language is to be expected from such a group of writers (or writer?).

The authors phrase things in ways that can or cannot be interpreted easily. I think the ambiguity adds to or points towards importance in the story. It gives situations for the reader to respond to. In Genesis 22:4 it says “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.”

How vague is that? What place did he look to? Was he looking up above his usual vision line or was he looking at the ground? What is implied by this verse within the context of the story?

Why, for that matter, does God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son?

In the end we see that Abraham’s obedience to and fear of God was rewarded by sparing his son. Obedience and fear of God are considered themes of this story by many, but the text does not outright say “because Abraham feared God, he agreed to sacrifice his son.” At the end his fear of God is acknowledged is acknowledge by God himself (Genesis 22:12).

But does this mean that obedience to God will spare you from ultimate hardship just because he spared Abraham his son?

I think not. Many people who obey and/or experience God throughout the Bible suffer because of it. Jacob is a prime example. God makes promises to Him, appears to Him in one way or another twice, and he gets a displaced hipbone and promise that he never gets to see fulfilled. Sucks to be him.

So to say that the Bible is a straight up guidebook I think is naïve. To say that themes can be seen and attributes of God can be gleaned from digging through and analyzing stories may be true. I think the most important part of the story in the imagery within it. Separate the showing from the telling, maybe think about why the author might have chosen to say what he did and leave out what he did. And while doing that, keep it in your head that any inferences or interpretations that you make or apply in life are just that – inferences and interpretations. The true reasons and meanings of the stories can only be found by talking to the authors themselves. And since we can’t bring back the dead, well, I think educated, intuitive, and objective reading of the text is important in understanding and appreciating the literary value of it.

I have some concerns about all your postings, guys. It's early still, so I'm not able to see much progress yet. But what I am seeing is people just saying what they already think and people then agreeing or disagreeing with the course. That's not the task in the blog. I don't want you to agree or disagree with the major ideas in the class. I want you to demonstrate through your writing that you understand them or are trying to understand them and that these ideas are somehow affecting how you read the text. It's fine to say how you were trained to read. I asked for that. But not to say, therefore, this is true, or this is right, or whatever. Notice, I often refer to myself as Catholic, but I never argue that the Catholic view is correct. No. The point is, I have assumptions, these assumptions influence how I read. You have assumptions, they influence you. Fine. But, what about other assumptions? What are they and how might they influence reading?

This is just like a take-home essay exam, guys, just a little more informal and, I hope, interesting: I need to see you demonstrating an understanding of what the course is teaching.

The only one who comes close here is Brian, in his second entry.

But I also want you all to be more detailed, use examples, and really talk about class.

As I say, it's early days, and there's not a lot to go on here. And I appreciate you all posting. But you've got to step it up a notch. Otherwise, I'm worried that I won't be able to give you the check.

First Blog Question: Response

I have always read Genesis like a history book, as truth concerning the past to be learned. I was raised with Christian beliefs that I still hold today, and I am certain that influence is the reason I perceive it that way. I also have held the belief that the creation story is true though not necessarily limited to the seven day span of time as we perceive it. God is outside of time, he created it, and it is very possible that seven days in the text could actually be seven million years or whatnot. This could, in some ways, mesh with the myth idea that has been discussed in class. If the creation story is explaining something beyond our understanding, it is quite possibly a greatly condensed version of what happened. It could have taken millions of years for each “day” to pass, with a more complicated process than just *poof* there’s all the creatures of the world. Perhaps it is the artist in me, but I have always seen God as an artist himself. He has no reason to hurry His creation process, no reason for it not to have layers to it, like a painting. He is outside of time, beyond our understanding. There is this realization, too, that influences my reading of the text, especially those first few chapters.

God is God. He is capable of anything. 7 days, 7 billion years. What's the difference? Nothing is beyond Him. Creation in a week is not unrealistic with God in the mix.

Beyond the creation story, I have no problem believing that people lived much longer in those early biblical days than now, and that God could have flooded the whole earth in order to cleanse it. It is in my understanding that God gave man freewill. He knows what we will do before we do it, and knows that man is capable of evil, but such is the risk when you create something with a choice to love or hate. To create something that loves you unconditionally because it has no choice would be shallow and meaningless.

I have experienced too many unexplainable or unheard of things in my own life to be convinced that God is not capable of things many people would deem impossible or myth-like. It is not hard for me to believe in the fantastic.

But I think I might be rabbit trailing some here; straying for the point of this blog entry.

I’d never really fully considered the idea of genre until this class, at least in the way it has been presented here. Narrative, poetry, proverbial literature, wisdom discourse, and treaty are the words I have been familiar with when categorizing the Bible. Myth and legend had never crossed my mind, most likely because of the very fiction feel they have coming from one’s mouth, and I have a difficult time thing of the Bible as fiction. I believe it to be truth, to at the very least point to truth. It is best thing we’ve got to help me get to know who God is within the limited ability humans are capable of.

Some of the information thrown at me in the class has done a number on my head. There is lots to absorb and process, lots to sort out and try to understand, to agree or disagree with. My opinions are being formed, still in the “processing” mode, and I imagine will be for awhile. I appreciate that my mind is being challenged, that some of my lifelong presumptions are being challenged. It will be interesting to see where this road will lead me.

Bible as Literature, First Blog Question

What assumptions do you make about the genre of Genesis - the kind of writing it is - and where do those assumptions come from?

How do they influence your reading of the text?