Author: lbarath

There was a lot of repetitive wording and interesting wording within the creations stories.  A lot has already been said on it, however I would like to reiterate how interesting I found the repetition in phrases such as “and God said”, “God saw that and it was good”, and even the use of “evening” and “morning” when those are typically not the only words we would use to describe the times of day.

There is also a lot of parallelism used throughout the creation – the first three days and the second three days have some glaring parallels.  In the first three days, I think that God is sort of creating an outline or a mold for the world.  On day 1, light and darkness are created, on day 2, the firmaments and the sky/sea are created, and on day 3 vegetation and dry land are created.  Then on the next three days, I believe gods is filling in the outlines he’s made and adding to the mold he created.  On day 4, the sun, moon, and stars are created.  On day 5, the fish and the birds are created, the first inhabitants!  And then finally, on day 6, more animals and people are created.  And the first three days even align with each other.  Day 1 and Day 4 both have to do with light, as the sun/moon/stars emit light.  Day 2 and Day 5 both have to do with the land and sky – one creates the habitat, and the other fills in the habitats with inhabitants.  Then finally, Day 3 and Day 6 put ground and vegetation and inhabitants for that ground/vegetation.  The days are parallel, God goes from creating the outline to filling it in.

Michael W. Holmes would certainly be considered a credible source and a reliable author.  Dr. Holmes has degrees, including a Ph.D, from multiple religious institutions and has written countless articles and books relating to the Bible or its subject matter.  He is particularly fluent in the New Testament.  On top of this, Dr. Holmes teaches Biblical Studies and Early Christianity at Bethel University, so he constantly takes in and produces media related to the Bible.  Of course, these accolades do not mean you should take his word 10o% of the time, however Dr. Holmes is clearly a scholar and someone who is up to date on the Bible and is knowledgeable in the field having studied for many years.

In researching through Google, I was able to find someone who is most certainly a reputable and distinguished source for the Old Testament – James L. Kugel.  In particular he is a specialist in the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Dr. James Kugel has taught at a few Universities, including teaching Hebrew Literature at Harvard University for twenty-one years.  Dr. Kugel currently teaches at Bar Ilan University in Israel.  He has also written over eighty research articles on the Bible and fifteen different books.  While Dr. Kugel is a very astute scholar of the Bible, humans are not without their biases.  He is a believing Orthodox Jew, which could mean that he interprets and sees things in the Old Testament differently to other sects of Christianity.  Despite these biases however, his works and his books are renowned by professionals within in the field.

Throughout the lesson, I have learned that even the most astute scholars can have their biases towards a topic, especially one as controversial as religion.  Every human holds biases, whether they be conscious or unconscious.  You need to do fervent research and make sure that these biases do not conflict with the specific article/piece of media, you need to cross check with professionals who hold different biases.  Trusting one person with all of your heart is not good from an academic standpoint, you must see what the consensus is from multiple points of view to get the full picture.

Hi everyone, I’m Luke Barath.  I’m a freshman here at Butler and dual majoring in Vocal Performance and Music Education.  Mainly, I am taking this course because it fills my TI credit needed.  However, I also wanted to take it because my knowledge on the bible is very limited and I have always been interested in learning more.

Like I said, I have very little experience or background involving the bible.  Growing up I never really went to church and never actively practiced a religion.  I do know that it is a sacred text to many and a book including many moral stories and life lessons.  I do know the very popular tales of course, such as Noah’s Ark, Moses, etc.  One thing that fascinates me most about the bible though is how it helps bring millions of people around the world together, even if those people interpret different passages or parts of it differently.

When searching up “What is a bible”, there is plenty of information to behold, but I am not sure how much is credible and how much is not.  For example, one of the first links that is brought up is from Wikipedia, which anyone can edit.  The first thing to pop up, however, is the dictionary definition of the bible, stating “the Christian scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testaments.”  That’s what it physically is, I suppose, but not a very deep answer.  Upon scanning the rest of the results, none of the websites seemed to be scholarly or professional, none of these first links that pop up are super reliable upon first glance