Author: gnbutler

In class on 9/24, we talked about a hypothetical society and what commandments we would have for it. We all agreed mostly agreed on the basic commandments of don’t kill, don’t lie, and be kind. Where we disagreed, however, was the inclusion of the first commandment as being necessary: “I am the Lord your God, thou shall not have any other Gods before me.” Some claimed that this commandment is needed because there needs to be something to act as the foundation, or the reason to follow the rest of the commandants. People said that there should be some sort of divine commandment to have before all the other ones. However, I don’t entirely think that there needs to be such a reason in order to follow a society’s laws/commandments. Why can’t people want to follow them in order to have a society that they want to live in? A society with law, order, freedom, and happiness. I feel like most people would want to follow the rules for that reason, and there doesn’t have to be a divine or religious commandment in order for that to happen. Obviously, there will always be people who break the law. There will always be people to break the commandments, if that’s what they try to follow. In our hypothetical society, this commandment is very exclusive for many people, for example like atheists and Hindus.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah was definitely a shock to read. Growing up in Catholic school, I was never taught that this kind of stuff was in the Bible. My last blog post was about this story and how it shocked me, but after discussing it in class a little bit and reading up on it more, I have a better understanding of it now. After I initially read the story, I wasn’t sure if the men’s sin was homosexuality, or just gang rape. In my opinion, their violence towards outsiders who weren’t a part of their city was the real sin that caused God to destroy their city. This shows that discussing and reading up on things rather than just reading the original story offers much more clarity and understanding of the actual meaning.

Reading the story of Abraham, Genesis 12-23, was very interesting to me. I have never read it before, and taking a look at it for the first time kind of shocked me with the amount of themes of rape, abuse, and slavery. The story of Hagar was obviously painful, with her having child of Abraham because of Sarah’s inability to have children, and the disrespect she incurred because of it. While in class we mainly touched on this particular story, and also the flood stories, there were some other parts of the reading that I was confused about.

Genesis 19 tells the story of Lot and two angels that came into the city. Lot has them to eat with him and stay the night at his house. Then later in the night, a group of men come and demand that Lot releases the two angels to them so they can have sex with them. Then Lot is basically like, no, take my virgin daughters instead. The angels strike all the men with blindness and then destroy the city. This part was very uncomfortable for me, especially because Lot was so willing to let his daughters be raped. I was wondering if the group of men were punished because of homosexuality, or because of their desire to rape. Or maybe both? Which is worse in God’s eyes? This was definitely the second most uncomfortable part of Genesis 12-23, with the first being Lot’s daughters getting him drunk and sleeping with him to become pregnant. Anyways, I’m curious how we will see these disturbing themes in other stories in the Bible.

There were many things that stuck out to me during our discussion of creation stories, including Genesis, Enuma Elish, and the Epic of Gilgamesh as discussed by Christine Hays in Lecture 4: Doublets and Contradictions, Seams and Sources. Specifically, the stories of Genesis and Enuma Elish have very contrasting ways that the world came about. In Enuma Elish, many different gods clashed with each other in battle and combat. In Genesis, there is only one character, one god, in the beginning, which points to the monotheistic way of Christianity and Judaism.

Talking about the “genre” of the Genesis creation stories also made me think quite a bit. There are a few different repetitions used which give the stories almost a poetic structure—for example, “And God said”, “And God saw that it was good”, and “—the (blank) day.” Personally, this poetic and lyrical expression of the story causes me to think that it’s not meant to be taken literally, which is something that has been up for debate among many people. What is a “day” in this story? Is it a literal 24 hour day, or rather a representation of something else? This is a topic that I’ve thought about personally for a long time, ever since my visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky a few years ago, which I remember was mentioned in class.

It was fairly simple in order to find information about Michael W. Holmes, and decide whether or not he is a reliable author about the subject of the Bible Canon. Holmes began teaching Biblical and Theological Studies at Bethel College in 1982, and has received many awards and recognition for his work. He is described as a world-renowned scholar in the area of biblical studies, and has a Ph.D. in Theological Seminary from Princeton and an M.A. in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Because of all of this information, Holmes seems to be a credible and reliable source of the Bible. One area where he may not be completely reliable, however, would be the Old Testament, since his specialization is in the New Testament. Also, he teaches currently at Bethel University, which is a Christian institution, and this might show some biases in his teachings. 

It was fairly easy to find other New Testament scholars on the internet. I found Richard B. Hays, a professor at Duke Divinity School. He is recognized worldwide for his work on the New Testament, letters of Paul, and the Gospels. He also has many books and lectures all around of world. Hays is also an ordained United Methodist minister and preaches in many different cities. This might be a source for bias.

The Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world, published this book that includes Michael Holme’s work. I have confidence that this is a reliable source of information, because Oxford is a very reputable press and has the widest global presence.

In this lesson, I learned the importance of questioning credibility not only of the author, but of the publisher of works, too. It is critical to gain an understanding of where the information is coming from, and how certain biases may affect it. There is probably no such thing as a completely unbiased person; human beings are not perfect. It is important, however, to take into consideration how the biases will affect the information you are getting. 

Hi everyone! My name is Grace Butler and I’m from Muncie, Indiana. I am a freshman studying Accounting. I chose to take this course obviously as a fulfillment for my TI requirement, however, I chose this class specifically to become more educated on the Bible. I went to a Catholic elementary school, which was really where my religious journey started. Despite that, I have never read the Bible. I hope that this class will expand my knowledge on the Bible academically and religiously. 

To me, the Bible is a collection of stories, lessons, and rules that help guide the way God wants people to live. There are many different ways to interpret the passages in the Bible, but overall, it is the sacred book that binds all Christians together. Whether people look at it as simply a historical book, or something more, it has meaning and is worth learning about.

Many people wrote the Bible with God as the overarching author. He obviously didn’t physically write the Bible, but his influence and guidance was what brought the writings of the Bible together. I really wish I knew more about how the Bible was actually written, so hopefully I will learn more about that in this class. 

When I searched on Google, “What is the Bible?” a few different things came up. There was information from Wikipedia and Britannica, which seem like honest, reliable, and unbiased sources. However, we know that anyone can edit things on Wikipedia (I am not sure if that is the case for Britannica) and that automatically makes that source questionable. After Wikipedia, which was the first website that came up, a result came up as “Faith 101: What is the Bible?” This page comes from an Evangelistic Association, which automatically has bias. The information may be factually true, but it’s still a theological study of the Bible (they’re assuming religious truth), instead of an academic study. It was interesting that this page was at the top of the search page.