Author: spasley

It is a normal belief that women did not play a role in the Church because they weren’t at the forefront. However, I believe they were the backbone and foundation of the Church. As the saying goes, “behind every great man is a great woman.” I’ll be honest that it does make me a little mad the low amount of women that are named in the Bible. There are stories in the Bible that surround women, but we run out of names before running out of the stories. I take this as the women weren’t important enough to name. Some of the women in the Bible that are named include Mary Magdalene, Elization (Mary’s cousin), Anna (Mary’s mother possibly?), and another Anna (the Prophet in the Temple). The Bible limits women to certain roles like prostitute, mother, daughter, and housewife. I believe this is because of the internalized misogyny that women have always experienced.

One new insight I learned about women in the Bible surrounds Genesis and Adam and Eve. Eve, a woman, is usually blamed for sin and eating the fruit from the tree. However, a new viewpoint I learned is that it was Adam’s fault. Eve wasn’t created yet when Adam was told not to eat from the tree. Adam’s teacher was Jesus. Eve was stuck with Adam has her teacher who did a bad job (clearly). Eve ate from the tree because she didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to because Adam was responsible for telling her and failed to. (A typical man, I might add).

During Tuesday’s class, we talked about Paul and James. I learned a lot of new things that I previously did not know. First, Paul and James disagree on a lot of things. They use “faith” and “works” in different ways. James believes more I good actions while Paul focuses on following the rules and the law. I think it is clear that Paul and James are talking past each other. Neither of them offers a counterargument of each other’s points and only focusing on their side/opinion. It is also clear the influence of Jesus’ teaching on both of them. One last thing I found interesting is the difference in time Paul spends on Genesis. I feel as though this proves Paul was not telling the truth. In my opinion, liars tend to come up with more complex, detailed stories in order to prove their side. I feel like its more clear when it’s shorter because they aren’t thinking about someone doubting them. Secondly, Dr. McGrath talked about Bone boxes which honestly blew my mind. The idea of these is crazy. A year after someone dies you collect their bones and put it in a box? This sounds very traumatizing to me and I can’t believe people used to do this. I don’t think it was a tradition for very long and I understand as to why.

On Thursday’s class, we discussed proverbs and the story of Job. I always knew what a proverb is but found it hard to define. They are defined as short sayings that offer some type of advice or wisdom. I had never realized that proverbs aren’t only religious sayings but natural sayings that I use in everyday life! Some of my favorites are:

“Actions speak louder than words”

“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”

“Early bird gets the worm”

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”

We also discussed the story of Job, which I have always found interesting in my previous religion courses. The discussion around suffering in the Bible is intriguing. I think the best part about the story of Job is that it is basically a philosophical thought experiment along with a wager. The idea of 2 deities making a bet based on the actions of a human is comical but also makes me feel a little uncomfortable. It doesn’t sit right with me that deities could just be seeing us as little pawns to mess with.

For Tuesday’s class, we read some articles that discussed the difference between monotheism, atheism, and polytheism. Monotheism is defined as the belief in only one God. Atheism is defined as the disbelief of any God. Lastly, polytheism is the belief of many Gods. Before this class, I was aware of all of these beliefs and their meanings. While reading something new I learned is monolatry, which is the belief that there are multiple Gods/deities, but only one is worshipped. I think this is an important distinction to make.

In class, we discussed the idea of Prophets. I find it difficult to define a Prophet but, the definition that makes the most sense to me is a messenger or contact of the words of God. Dr. McGrath asked us to come with ideas of Prophets in recent history and they didn’t have to be religious. My group came up with MLK and scientists like Dr. Fauci (especially in COVID19 times). I see the resemblance between MLK and Prophets because not only did MLK directly quote the Bible, but he is a person that was held with high respect and many people listened to him and still do years after his death. Similarly, scientists are held with high respect and people listen to their opinions and directions. However, both MLK and scientists aren’t always listened to but Prophets also weren’t.

For Tuesday’s class, we read and discussed the topic of slavery.

First, an important perspective going into these readings and discussions were necessary. I once read a quote that said, “we cannot judge the past with standards of the present.” This is important when we are reading anything from a different time period, especially when it comes to the Bible.

Second, an important distinction that we made was the difference between ancient slavery and American slavery, with which I am more familiar with. Beforehand, I didn’t know about this distinction. Ancient slavery was more similar to being a servant, compared to American slavery where slaves were actually bought, traded, and owned. In ancient slavery, it was more of a choice and volunteered to become a slave. Most people sold themselves, or their kids, into slavery in order to pay off debt. Of course, this is not something they preferred but was a better option than dying. American slaves were forced just because of their skin color and had no say. In the Timothy reading, I found it interesting that they said “those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful.” Does this mean those who don’t have believing masters can be disrespectful? It only matters if the master believes? It doesn’t matter if the slave believes or not?

Thirdly, we discussed the difference in the economy and idea of the property that took place at these times. The economy was mostly agriculturalists. Most people had land and relied on crops and animals in order to feed themselves and to make money. This is why the idea of slavery was so prevalent because it was easy to get in debt and necessary in order to survive. The idea of the property being different is also important because they did not think of slaves as property, but things like land and animals and crops as property.

Lastly, we discussed the types of battles happening. Dr. McGrath explained that the battles of slavery are over. And to this, I might argue. People in the US agree that slavery is bad, but there is secretly a lot of slavery still happening in other parts of the world where people still think it is okay and are abusing people. However, I did agree that there are other parts of the Bible that are still being battled. These battles include social policy, laws, and rights. These battles are important for our future.

In class on Thursday, we discussed the commandments that we would give a community. It was a hot debate. Most people settled on don’t kill, don’t lie, and don’t steal. I find it interesting that they all start with do not. It is hard to come with laws/rules that are telling a person what to do instead of telling them what they shouldn’t do.

However, I came up with one. Be Kind. In my community, I believe this would be my only commandment. Because if you are being kind, the bad things that happen in a community should be avoided, and the good things should be encouraged. I believe this one commandment would overall create a very healthy, friendly, and simple community. It starts to get too complicated when you put in too many rules. People start resenting the commandments, ruling, etc. Giving people more freedom will usually turn out to be better by encouraging the natural good in people. Maybe some simple clarification of kindness and examples of what would be kind and what wouldn’t be kind would be needed, but otherwise, I would leave it at that. Be Kind.

Reading Exodus was interesting because again, I have never read these texts before (or from what I remember). The idea of the plagues was interesting, and the 10th plague was unexpected where the firstborn dies.

Reading about the Slave Bibles was sad. The manipulation and torture that occurred along with slavery are sad. Slave owners really thought it was okay to selectively edit the Bible in order to instill slavery and avoid rebellion. I feel as this shows that slave owners knew what they were doing was wrong, and had to manipulate in order to make it “okay.” It is disgusting that they kept parts of the Bible that discussed enslavement and listening to masters but cut out the parts that discussed rebellion, uprising, and freedom.

Discussing Biblical Law is something I believe to be important. It is true that you must ensure that the law is truly saying that before perceiving it to be true and demanding others to follow it. I also think its important that laws must change over time and must be adapted or rejected. This reminds me of the Constitution and how some laws must be adapted because it was written by white males who thought slaves are only 3/5 of a person.

This brings me to the next reading of the audience of the ten commandments. It is an important distinction that the audience was aimed at privileged males (mostly white). Knowing the intended audience can help when perceiving the readings.

This reading was an interesting one. This is the first time I read it, or from what I can remember. I only attended Sunday school up to 4th grade, and I can imagine that they were not telling stories like this to 4th graders (or at least I hope not. I guess if they did it didn’t traumatize me enough to remember, which is a good sign). I am brutally disturbed that a man would take a stranger into his home and protect him by volunteering his daughter (adding in that she is a virgin) basically as a sacrifice or distraction? I can’t imagine doing this to anyone, let alone my own family or children for a complete stranger. It is disgusting that she died from her injuries. And since that wasn’t enough, they had to cut her up and send parts of her body to Isreal!

Getting past the horrific details of this story, I agree that the points of the story have been lost. Readers have gotten caught up in the genders of the human beings performing these acts of violence, instead of the violence itself. I agree with Dr. McGrath when he says that this was not a sexual act or display of sexual orientation, but purely an act of mob violence.

Class on Tuesday begun by discussing the flood story. When you take a closer look at the flood story, you notice and question things that you don’t when you first read it. It is interesting that God doesn’t punish human beings by sending them to Hell. I feel like that is the common conception; that if you are bad, God punishes you by sending you to Hell and not allowing you to enter Heaven. Instead, he just released the floodwaters and thought they deserved to die. Hayes also mentioned in her lecture that God is not threatened by these floodwaters at all, but actually ends up being surprised/terrified of them.

Next, we discussed the story of Hagar the slave. I found it interesting that Hagar despises Sarai, but it seems as though she only starts despising Sarai once she gets pregnant. I obviously understand despising her because she is forcing her to have sex and get pregnant with her husband. However, to me, I would despise the woman from the beginning, not only until I get pregnant. Dr. McGrath made a good point that Hagar could now be jealous of Sarai since Abram is her husband. Hagar could be having feelings for Abram and want him to herself. Also, why does Sarai care that Hagar despises her? Hagar is just her slave that she forced to have sex with her husband and carry her baby. Lastly, I find it interesting that this story touches on the struggles of infertility. I feel as though infertility is actually a common struggle experienced by a multitude of people, but it is something that is not talked about much.

The reading assigned for Thursday taught me something new because I had not known beforehand that there are 2 different accounts for the flood story. I picked up mostly on the differences between the birds. This is interesting because before I would have thought of the bird part to not be that important, but now seeing the different accounts makes me question. I also had not known that Noah was given eternal life beforehand and that everyone is a descendant of him so he lives on. I’m really shocked that I had never heard of this before, but it makes sense.

The discussions in class surrounding Adam and Eve also taught me a lot. First, Dr. McGrath blew my mind that Adam is not a real name, but rather the word for human-being in Hebrew. Knowing this makes me read the creation story in a new light. I also had never made the connection that Adam and Eve are making the transition from childhood to adulthood. The shame of nakedness makes a lot more sense now. Dr. McGrath asked when we think we began realizing our nakedness, and I answered around 1. My thinking behind my answer is my nephew. He recently turned 1, but definitely knows when he is naked and when he has clothes on. Most of the time he prefers to be naked!

Lastly, the discussion surrounding the disobedient act was interesting. A classmate brought up the important fact that action is required, this action being the taking of the fruit of course. This comment made me realize that temptation is also required. If the fruit was something that Adam or Eve didn’t want than the story might have turned out differently.