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In this class period, I learned a lot about Genesis. I found this session very interesting because in the past I have only learned about the Bible from faith teachers at my school, so they taught me to think of the Bible in a very specific way and believe everything without question. I liked getting to talk about Genesis in this class because it allowed me to think of the book in a more critical light.

For example, in class, we talked about the Tower of Babel and what this could have meant. In high school, I was always taught that the Tower of Babel was a real tower in which people were trying to reach the Heavens because of their selfishness and greed. However, in class, we were told that the author is poking fun at an unfinished Zigguraut and is writing a form of fable to explain why this tower is unfinished and language. I appreciate this new view of the Biblical story as it allowed me to think differently about something that I have learned about for seven years of school.

Similarly, I appreciated the conversation we had about Abraham and why God told him to sacrifice Isaac. The story was meant to discourage people from sacrificing their children, so God tested Abraham’s belief and trust in Him and then gave him a sacrifice to offer in place of Isaac. I think this interpretation of the story makes God seem less like a puppet master and more in control because He is trying to show that He wants people of Abraham’s time to stop sacrificing their children. I am glad we took a critical understanding of Genesis today as it helped me better understand the book as a whole.

One thing from the readings that I found most interesting was in the reading about The Bible and Children when it says that the author of 1 Timothy says that childbirth is punishment to women for Eve’s actions in the Garden of Eden. It’s interesting because it goes back to this side of God that we don’t think about often, and that is his angry side. It is weird to think about an all powerful and loving being burdening women for all of time because of the first one’s actions. I think maybe what is really happening behind this story is a misogynistic man was interpreting The Bible and put his skew on it.

What is an even weirder idea is right after talking about women being punished for Eve’s actions, it’s said that The Bible discourages child bearing. This is such an odd idea because if you think of the nuclear contemporary family, you think of them holding Judeo Christian values and being very ethical, at least that’s what I think. Another reason this is an odd idea to me is when I think of spreading Gods love I think spreading it through children, and I don’t think I’m alone on that.

Hagar was the part of this reading/lecture that I enjoyed the most. I just find her character interesting aside from the theology that may be linked to her. A lot of the time we don’t think of the slaves or servants of amazing people, like George Washington’s slaves or JFK’s secretary. I may be wrong because sometimes it gets hard to hear on the zoom call, but it’s pretty amazing how much we could talk about her, and her relationship with Sarah and Abraham without even discussing Ishmael fully. I find it interesting how all three of the Abrahamic religions stem from the same family. When you fully think about it, it’s not that surprising since really all humans have a common ancestor if you go far back enough but that’s beside the point. The point is how we see a much stronger, healthier relationship between the Christians and Jews of today, then between the Muslims and either of the former. If we put everything politically and historically aside about the three, there may be a correlation from the exile of Hagar and Ishmael from the bloodline that would end up starting Christianity and Judaism.

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different perspectives and views on creation in class. Being raised going to church, I always just accepted the Adam and Eve creation story in the Bible and never really wondered how other groups of people might view creation. Out of curiosity, I looked into some of the other ways people think the world was created, and while a majority of the creation stories involve some sort of supreme being beyond worldly comprehension, there are some discrepancies. One example of this are the “diver-myths,” a belief that the earth was once covered with water and then brought to the surface. It was so interesting to me how many different perspectives there actually are, and we probably don’t even know about all of the possibilities.

I do still believe the Genesis story, however, this class has caused my to expand my view. We discuss this often in class, that the Bible should not always be taken literally, and almost everything is up to interpretation. Whether a man was actually created from next to nothing and a woman was made with the sole rib bone of a man or not, we all have the freedom to question and believe what we want from these stories.

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.

Today in class we had talked about a wide variety of things. These being rape, abuse, slavery, infertility and the relations with the  stories of Abraham, and conception of time.  In class we had talked about the stories of Abraham. The one we spend the most time on was Genesis 11 the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. This story covers the rape, abuse, infertility, and slavery aspect we spent the majority of class on.  The briefest of summaries is, Abraham’s wife Sarah was infernal, so she made her slave Sarah conceive a baby with Abraham. This caused many things to occur. Because of these circumstances Hagar and Sarah were constantly angry with one another. However she had only begun to hate Sarah only once she was pregnant with Abrahams baby. As we discussed this may have allowed Hagar to feel more entitled as she was now baring Sarah’s husbands child. This is very similar to the show the Handmaids Tale which we had also talked talked about in class. However until now I had not realized or put all the dots together. In this case I have begun to see that the story of Abraham is what the entire show is essentially based upon and grown off of with a futuristic twist.  Seeing this really made me appreciate the writers more and I can only image the amount of people who do not realize the correlation like I had previously.

I found the discussion of Hagar to be a lot less uncomfortable than I expected. Of course, the idea of being enslaved, raped, and cast out into the wilderness is scarring, to say the least, but the other parts of this story give Hagar’s life a more positive meaning than those who mistreated her. Even though her baby’s conception was likely traumatic for her, she did mother a central figure of three religions. She is credited with being a powerful mother, one who finally got to form an identity besides being Sarah’s slave. Her life wasn’t perfect or even bearable at times, but she is a very important part of the rest of history, and in a spiritual sense, faith in the way we see it today. Without her role in the Bible, whether a fable or extension of true fact, the Ishmaelites and the subsequent commentary about them wouldn’t exist in the same way. 

Some other interesting ideas presented in the discussion made me think about gender in the early days of the Bible. Hagar was obviously treated with disrespect, including abuse and rape that men would have been protected from in the Hebrew texts, but the fact that Sarah owned her made me think. It is Sarah, not Abraham, that owns her. This is different from the patriarchal perspective I expected the early families to have. Women still faced many obstacles in Genesis and subsequent books, but this was an intriguing anomaly to me. 

Overall, the Hagar, Abraham, and Sarah story raises important dichotomies between religions, societal expectations, and how God uses his Chosen People. 

Growing up, the Bible’s creation story is the only one I read. It wasn’t until this class that I really explored more than just Genesis. And turns out, in a sense, I wasn’t really missing much–Mesopotamia has plenty of similar stories. This was such an interesting realization to me, considering that I hadn’t thought much about other stories or how geography affected them. Sometimes I forget that the Bible was likely told orally until written down, and that they developed and travelled around just like the epic poetry and legends of Old English. 

During our discussion, I have been really indecisive in how I view the Genesis story. It’s extremely unlikely that the author(s) were there, so there’s no way of really knowing what happened. Considering that this was probably an epic or mythologically-influenced story makes me think–what is considered true? A beautiful story about light emerging from darkness and man being formed from dust is not without value, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be an exact recounting of events in order to be meaningful. Even if it is some outlandish legend passed down, it’s still tradition and it’s still inspiring. 

One thing has become increasingly clear as I’ve grown up: no one is telling the full truth. In fact, there’s rarely a complete, agreed-upon truth in any situation. Everyone is biased by the things that they’ve experienced, their own motivations, or what they think their audience wants to hear. This is what Bible translations have turned into in my head. Everyone has different experiences or research that would cause them to translate the Bible a certain way, and they often feel strongly enough to spark another denomination. As someone who always went to “nondenominational” church (it was likely watered-down Baptist), this is really my first experience with any Bible that isn’t ESV or NIV. Who knew that slight word changes could alter how we view an entire book? 

I am enjoying reading my academic NRSV bible and my NIV side by side, using whatever context clues I can to make sense of the giant book in front of me. Commentary has been extremely helpful for me, both in an academic and personal sense. So many people have tried to make sense of this work, finding value in it from all kinds of directions. To me, this adds to the overall meaning of the book in my life and in a literature sense.

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.