The Bible TI251 Fall 2020

Something that came up in our class discussion today was the dynamic relationship between Hagar and Sarai, Abraham’s servant (or slave) and his wife. Sarai didn’t give birth to Isaac until Abraham was said to be 100 years old in Genesis 17:17-19: long after Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Since Hagar had a child long before Sarai, Sarai worried that Hagar would gain favor with Abraham. In Genesis 16-20, we don’t see much evidence that Abraham’s wife was treated any different than his servant, Hagar. Sarai demanded to Abraham that he send Hagar and Ishmael way, to which Abraham only did because the Lord told him to do so. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, Abraham plans to do so, but we have no account of him speaking or telling Sarai about this encounter with God, implying that her two-cents is of now concern on major issues. The role of women in the Genesis stories seems to be of little concern for people like Abraham. I wonder if the treatment women will be consistent in the rest of the Bible as it is in Genesis.

Having not read the Bible before, Genesis 12-23 was very bizarre to read. There are many questions I have from reading these sections. Since I had not read this part of the Bible before, I had no prior notion of believing Hagar was a black woman until reading Reimagining Hagar. It is odd that Sarai was so adamant on having a child that she allowed her husband to have sex with another woman to have a child. It is also interesting that Sarah not only gave Hagar to Abram as a slave, she gave Hagar to him as a wife. Reimagining Hagar discusses how Hagar is only referred to as Abram’s wife when they are talking about sex. In all other instances, Hagar is a “slave-woman”, or another similar term. The Bible does not explicitly say that Hagar is black, it only mentions that she is from Egypt, which is a different area than where Sarai and Abram are from. I am curious as to how the interpretations have made Hagar a black woman instead of just an Egyptian woman. I also wonder why the divine messenger tells Hagar to go back after being “dealt with” by Sarai. Why would the messenger want Hagar to return to a place she was abused at? I have many more questions as to why certain things are said in this section of the Bible.

I found the stories of Hagar in the Bible quite interesting, and the way Reimagining Hagar gives insight also fascinated me. When I first learned that she was the slave of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and that Sarah allowed her to conceive a child with Abraham because was not able to, I was very surprised. I would not expect a woman to allow another woman who is viewed as inferior to have sex with and conceive a child with her husband, and I would not expect the husband to want have a child with anyone else but his wife. What the article showed me was how they were using Hagar’s body as a source for having a child, and Abraham wasn’t necessarily making an emotional connection, but instead he raped her in order to have a child because his wife wasn’t able to. Sarah had a similar mindset, where she saw Hagar’s body as a place where her husband could have a child.

I also found it fascinating how the author connects Hagar as being Black, even though this was not her skin color or ethnicity. Hagar was Egyptian, but the author was comparing how Egyptians in the days when these parts of the Bible were written were viewed similarly to how Blacks have been viewed in American history. They both are seen as inferior, looked down upon, and possibly even less than human.

I really enjoyed exploring the take of Adam and Eve being figurative story about the transition from childhood to adulthood. It makes perfect sense to me. We see so much metaphorical writing in the Bible, with stories like Jonah that are also outlandish to the modern mind, which make this story seem manufactured to tell humans a story. I also don’t think that this new meaning nullifies the creation story aspect of it either as double entendres exist for a reason, to make you think. I think there are things to learn for humans both ways you perceive it.

In regards to the Pentateuch and its writers, I think there is no way that it is not multiple writers. All the inconsistencies in the writing styles proves that it wasn’t Moses solely. There is no real reason for Moses to have this inconsistencies, that he must’ve consciously chosen to make. Even if at one point in time Moses did “write” all the stories, there was most certainly somethings that were lost in translation as the Pentateuch was formed after his death. Therefore even if it did originate from his mind it has been warped into something else, shown by the inconsistencies in his writing.

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.

I found this lecture especially interesting. I have explored the discrepancies in the creation stories in the past very topically but I enjoyed learning about it deeper. The part that interested me the most was looking at the order that God made everything. I think the sequence of his creation is one that can be expanded upon a hundred fold. The most interesting ordering is that he made the sky, seas, and solid ground before the heavenly bodies. When we look at the Big Bang Theory we think of Earth as being not particularly special and late in the game, as to where this prioritizes Earth over everything else. This also gets back into the talking point of what scientifically happens vs the maybe stories, maybe not stories that are told in the Bible to show humans a lesson. Whenever we talk about this in class I tend to think about my Uncle that is a Professor of microbiology and his adamant position against religion and how if you know science, you wouldn’t practice religion.
Another thing that interested me during the lecture was the concept that God had to create space in order to fill it with things like Earth. This concept is beyond confusing to think about there being such thing as no space and the extent of Gods power. It puts it into perspective of his unlimited power really.

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.

In our class discussion today, it was interesting to interpret Genesis 1 through 3 by replacing the forbidden fruit with a big red button that says, “Don’t Push.” I think that was an excellent way to place the creation stories in Genesis in a modern context. Adam and Eve were explicitly told not to touch the fruit, but they chose to do so anyway. Those who raised their admitting they would press the big red button (me included) show the same decision to question authority as Adam and Eve.

The video of Dexter Callender’s explanation on Genesis 6 through 11 and Gilgamesh was somewhat enlightening that there were two different accounts of a great flood. Both perspectives read very similarly in respect to each story sending out birds to scout the earth for dry land. Doves and ravens were sent out in both accounts which is an odd coincidence itself, but was interesting to me was that Dexter Callender proposed that Noah was granted eternal life by God to complete the Ark and harbor all living creatures during the flood. It never had occurred to me to question why Noah lived to be 950, but it’s a nice explanation to how Noah lived to such an old age in this fable.

Today in class we talked about Genesis 2 and 3 and the story of Adam and Eve. This class discussion was very interesting as we had once again talked about the “forbidden fruit” and mans desire to question authority.  We talked about the fruit as a big red button and that is exactly what it was. It was something Adam and Ever were specifically told not to touch but did so anyways. Being honest I would do specifically what my parents told me not to do because I knew what was best for myself and it was whatever they were keeping me away from.  However I did not sin in doing so. God realized that they made a mistake. God is all knowing, wise, and powerful he realized that humans weren’t perfect and realized this flaw should not be corrected as it teaches us a lesson the vast majority of the times we question our authority.

In Genesis 6-11 there are 2 different flood sties and the video with Dexter Callender describes the differences well and the reading definitely shows it. Dexter brings up the idea of myth within the bible. He mentions that it is in the flood story that we hear of this. It is because the two of every animal and all man coming from Noah, He mentions Noahs eternal life and the birds. The thing that also throws people off is it raining for forty days and nights causing the flood. I find it very interesting how there are obvious differences told within the same story. This might lead one to believe it to be hear say. I am not sure how these stories have been so altered or where the two stories got woven together but it makes it clear that somethings might have been lost over time or even added for flare of the story.