Author: sagostin

Revisiting the flood stories, I reflected on what key differences existed between the Yahwist version and the Priestly Writers version.  The first was the most obvious, and I also think the most important: the use of the term Yahweh vs. Elohim.  Yahweh in Hebrew translates to mean “LORD” and Elohim translates to mean “gods” or “deities.”  I found this difference quite significant because as a child I was always told that LORD was “YHWH” or the one and the only God.  The differentiation between gods and God was always emphasized when I was younger, and I think this is an example where the differentiation becomes critical.  God refers to our God, the one and only all powerful and all knowing God, however, gods refers to other “gods” that people turned from God to worship, such as Ba’al and others.  Another key difference is the duration of the flood.  Being raised in a Catholic school, I have reflected on this story many times.  The duration of the flood in the Yahwist version is forty days and forty nights, however forty days and forty nights is simply symbolic of a long time.  It is very interesting that the Priestly Writer’s version mentions 150 days.  In the notes at the end of the article it says that the flood lasted one year and 10 days.  This got me thinking that we potentially have an idea of how they measured time, however, there is no way to know that the article’s one year and ten days is accurate.  These are two key differences between the two versions that I found very important to highlight.

After reflecting on these two versions, I have discovered that when comparing these two versions of this story with the Bible that I have, details from both versions of the story are present.  Both versions are intertwined to help more thoroughly tell the story, which I find very helpful, but a little redundant at times.  Overall, these two stories have some key similarities, however some crucial differing details from both  that are included in the story of Noah and the flood.

Last class, we discussed the question of whether Jesus had siblings or not, and since then I can’t stop thinking about that question.  Prior to taking this class, I had never thought that Jesus had a sibling, human or Godly.  I had only ever been taught that he was the one and only son of God.  So if Mary did have more children, or Joseph had children from a prior marriage, why don’t we hear about it more in the Bible?  I mentioned in class that I thought that brothers was figurative, in that Jesus had brothers in Christ, in that they shared their belief in God (much like how we use that term today).  However, it got me thinking about if Jesus did have a brother, would he have had the same relationship with God that Jesus had?  How would miracles work?  Could they both perform different types of miracles or would they only be able to perform specific types?  Would they both need to be present for the miracle to work completely?  The questions keep flowing, but I think it is safe to say that there is much clarification needed if Jesus did have a brother.

Discussing whether James was Jesus’ brother or not during class was very interesting.  I decided to look at my Bible to see exactly what it says and any references it has in the introduction to each of the books, and sure enough, it referred me to Galatians 1:19.  In Galatians 1:19, there is reference to Jesus’ brother, but there are no other specifications.  While reading the Letter of James, I found it very interesting in the first verse that there is mention of the Lord Jesus Christ, however it refers to James as the servant (otherwise translated as slave).  So this still leaves me with the lingering question of, “Is James really Jesus’ brother, or does brother have another meaning here?”  Despite not having any answers, I really enjoyed reading the Letter of James.  I haven’t read it in a while so it was a very refreshing review.

The gospels.  The story of Jesus: from his birth to beyond his death and Resurrection.  The infancy is one of my favorite stories.  Mary is a wonderful inspiration to the ideal faithful woman that I strive to be like everyday.  She was perfect in God’s eyes, and despite the many challenges that I face day to day, Mary continues to inspire me to continue to grow in faith.  Growing up, I have gone through the ups and downs of faith.  When Mary found out she was pregnant as a virgin and panicked, I felt that this was a great test of faith.  For me a great test of my faith has been Alzheimer’s.  My grandmothers both had Alzheimer’s, and it led me to a dark and difficult place in my life.  I found myself struggling to keep the faith.  I truly believe that God tests us to show us how strong we are when faced with even larger obstacles.  Mary was faced with an obstacle of a virgin birth to test her faith in God, and from then on showed God her great love for Him through conceiving God’s Only Son.  Jesus was God’s gift; he was sent by God so that humans could connect more easily with Him.  He was living proof that God was real!  Through Mary’s strength and faith in God, we were blessed to know a miracle worker, preacher, teacher, lover, healer, and so much more.  Mary in a way, helped form the bridge between God and man, and that makes her critical to our connection with God.

Rape and abuse in the Bible is actually more present than I initially thought.  I have always heard the song, “Halleluiah” and knew that it was about David looking at Bathsheba, and I have heard a few other stories with servants being raped and abused.  However, I never realized how connected rape and abuse today connects with the Bible.  Often times, we don’t like to think of the negative aspects of the Bible.  However, I think that understanding that not all of the Bible is all sparkles and miracles is really important.  Two huge issues today are rape and abuse, and I think that its interesting to see the parallels between now and Biblical times.  They lived in a society that was ruled by men (patriarchy) and women were subordinate to men, sometimes not even being included when it comes to referring to a group of people with men and women combined.  This all takes me back to my GHS class, Women in Society: Rights and Resistance.  In this course, we looked at women in society.  It was very eye opening to see the amount of abuse that still occurs in our world today, and how oblivious we become to it.  Despite the many obstacles that women have overcome, there are still many to go.

Psalms, and music in general, have had a huge impact on my faith life.  Starting from a young age, I often listened to Christian music, attended Mass regularly, sang along with the songs (because they say singing is praying twice:), and getting involved in the ministry.  Having played instruments for 15 years, I have been able to be more insightful to how music can give so much meaning to words that initially don’t make much sense to us.  Often times, when singing the psalms during Mass, I have a realization or connection that all of a sudden comes to me, and I suddenly know why the psalm was chosen to go with the particular Scripture readings for the day.  The psalms are often some of the more catchier tunes that are short and easy to get stuck in my head, so I will end up singing them all throughout the day.  Additionally, I thought the idea of interpretation and the use of music to convey a particular meaning was very interesting.  It got me thinking about some of the Gregorian chant that I have heard videos of, and I got to thinking about how far our “music” has come.  I attended an Eastern Orthodox Church one weekend and was very surprised to find that a lot of their songs are just chants.  There were only a few pieces that had maybe a few notes or chords on piano, which I found very different from my typical Mass.  Because I have had music in my life since a very young age, I have learned how much work goes into creating expression and emotion in what is initially words typed on a page.  Starting as a poem, it’s interesting to see just how one line can turn into what seems like a struggle to get through by notation and rhythm selected.  I also find it very interesting to see how each Church may adapt its own “style” to their psalms that they sing.  Often at my church, our piano player will write a different tune to go with the words of the psalm, or sometimes they use the same tune for two different psalms.  I find it very interesting to compare and contrast music between churches.  It has allowed me to reflect on my personal preferences with music involved in the Mass.

Last class, we discussed the term monotheism and what it means.  Monotheism is a term that to me has always meant the belief in one God.  However, the term “Trinity” was also mentioned.  Back in high school, I remember having the discussion of how the Trinity is constituted as one God and it brought up some really interesting questions. To start, defining the term Trinity is critical.  Trinity refers to one being, and three persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This brings up the discussion of how can we say we are monotheists if there are three define persons that make up the Trinity?  Well together they work as one, but yet they are also each different “forms” of one being.  What can this be compared to?  One of the examples that stuck out to me that was a real life example of how we can demonstrate the relationship of the Trinity is water.  Water has three forms: steam, water and ice, however they all can be constituted as different types or forms of the same thing.  In this way, I think that the Trinity is still constituted as the belief in one Divine being that has different forms or types.  The Father is God, the Son is Jesus through whom God works, and the Holy Spirit, who also communicates to us through God.  God is present in all three persons and therefore, the Trinity supports this idea of monotheism.

After today’s class discussion on David and Goliath, I vividly remember always comparing Goliath to a lion when I was younger.  Goliath is always described as undefeatable.  He, in essence, could be compared to a mighty beast, and because David had previously killed a lion before, it was easy to compare Goliath to a lion.  Goliath intimidated people! He threatened the Israelites, but David stood up and put up a fight, even though the odds seemed stacked against him.

Ever since I can remember, David has been so inspiring in this story.  I can relate to just how he felt so intimidated by this giant being standing in front of him.  Although they had a physical battle, I have had many battles that I have had to fight verbally, because of getting picked on.  So, in a lot of ways, I was very glad that we read this story.  It reminded me that even when I feel weak, God will give me strength if I trust in Him.  I think that this really speaks to me today because with everything going on and all the tensions that we see daily, it is important for us to remember that the evil (or Goliath) can be defeated, despite how undefeatable it may seem.  The devil is working through the evil in this world just as he worked through Goliath, but just like David, we can overcome it.

In the Enuma Elish, one of the first things that stuck out to me was all of the different people to keep track of.  Knowing the creation story for as long as I can remember, this story had me a little confused.  I had to continually read and reread to try and better understand it, and to be honest, a lot of it still isn’t super clear.  However, when reading the creation story I have known for so long, I put myself in the shoes of never reading it before to see how my perspective changed (if at all).  I found it so much easier to understand and follow along with.  I thought it was interesting how the Enuma Elish reminded me of Greek mythology.

In Christine Hayes Lecture, I thought it was interesting that Genesis 1 doesn’t literally mean that God created everything from nothing.  Particularly in the first verse, often times we take it literally.  When we are taught the creation story, we are often told that everything was created by God at the beginning of time.  However, when you take a look at the Hebrew, it talks about when God created everything.  This difference of creation at the beginning of time vs. using creation as a benchmark in time is very interesting to me.  The timeline thought never really occurred to me.  I also remember talking about how the story of Adam and Eve was just placed after creation because it made the most sense chronologically, but before taking this course I never really thought of the two stories as independent of each other. The discussions have really allowed me to dig deeper into the scriptures, and I really enjoy thinking through things from a different perspective.

In class we had an interesting discussion on the differences and similarities of the beginning Chapters of Genesis.  It was interesting to see that some words were translated differently between the two translations, however some key phrases didn’t vary.  We discussed how this could be a sign that there is little room for variance in meaning.  It seemed that the emphasis was put on the differences however, because the translations seemed to be a little controversial.  I also thought it was interesting thinking about how many different genres are actually present in the bible.  The thought never really occurred to me that any of it could be fiction, especially because its what I have been taught to be The Word since I can remember.

In the reading of “Valiant Or Virtuous,” they go into detail of how the same word can be translated to mean two different things when used in the context of male vs. female.  I thought that this was very interesting.  My initial thought was that there is some gender biases, however it is made clear that there aren’t any; it was simply a translation difference in Greek.  Despite this only being a small difference, I think that some of the other differences between translations simply come down to different people can interpret and translate one word to mean different things.  I found this article to be helpful in understanding why there may be discrepancies between different translations of the Bible.

In The Oxford Handbook to Early Christian Studies, Michael W. Holmes discusses the difference between canon and scripture and proceeds to dive into the history.  I believe that Michael W. Holmes is very reliable when it comes to Scriptural studies.  Holmes has been a professor at Bethel University for thirty eight years, and has attained the title of Department Chair of the Biblical and Theological studies within his time there. He also continues to work on some extensive research projects as well.  It is very clear from Professor Holmes’ background that he is a very credible and reliable source.  Holmes’s specializations include the New Testament and the Founding Fathers.

Another reliable source that could be used is Professor Gary A. Anderson from the University of Notre Dame.  He received his Ph. D. from Harvard University in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, however much of his research is on the Tabernacle.  His specialization is actually the Old Testament, but he has many published works on early Christianity as well.  His continued interest and dedication to learning more about the Bible, along with his past studies and expertise both show that he is a credible source to be used.

After going through this lesson, I feel more informed on how to identify a reliable source.  In the past, it has never really been made clear the best way to find credible sources, and I was often told to look for the “.org” or the “.com.”  However, now I know that it is important to check the credibility of the author of the source you are using, and do a check on their credentials.  If the subject they are writing on is not within their realm of their expertise, then they are probably not reliable discussing that topic.