Genesis 8-11
Feb. 10th, 2010 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfpurplemoon posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
wolfbiblemoonThe flood clears up and Noah has lots of descendants...
* Apparently the flood story is actually two different stories merged together, badly. So it switches between the rain lasting 40 days or 150 days and Noah randomly sends a Raven out before the Dove and the Raven just flies about a bit. Not that it would make any more sense if that hadn't been the case!!
Oh and I don't know how the story of Noah's Ark is suitable as a story for children to adore, sure the idea of animals going two by two is nice but what about all the ones that are wiped out because of the sins of a few humans. Though I suppose scaring children into conforming is a big part of indoctrination.
* God doesn't seem to be particularly omnipotent, he puts a rainbow in the sky to mark the fact that he won't wipe all humans and animals out again and he says that it will remind him of that when he sees it as well.
* Far too much begatting, whoever wrote this is obsessed with pointless lineages.
* Tower of Babel in this section, supposedly the advent of diverse languages, despite the mention in a previous chapter of all the different tongues that are spoken on Earth.
* Apparently the flood story is actually two different stories merged together, badly. So it switches between the rain lasting 40 days or 150 days and Noah randomly sends a Raven out before the Dove and the Raven just flies about a bit. Not that it would make any more sense if that hadn't been the case!!
Oh and I don't know how the story of Noah's Ark is suitable as a story for children to adore, sure the idea of animals going two by two is nice but what about all the ones that are wiped out because of the sins of a few humans. Though I suppose scaring children into conforming is a big part of indoctrination.
* God doesn't seem to be particularly omnipotent, he puts a rainbow in the sky to mark the fact that he won't wipe all humans and animals out again and he says that it will remind him of that when he sees it as well.
* Far too much begatting, whoever wrote this is obsessed with pointless lineages.
* Tower of Babel in this section, supposedly the advent of diverse languages, despite the mention in a previous chapter of all the different tongues that are spoken on Earth.
i really appreciate your blog
Date: 2010-05-28 02:32 pm (UTC)1. Genesis, some scholars maintain, was actually 2-4 oral and written accounts combined by Moses to make the book. Roughly 365 days from the flooding to the receding of the waters is the timeframe.
2. I agree the Noah story in its entirety is a frightening tale for anyone. Much like the epic disaster movies today. The passage intends to show a gracious God who rescues a people who have shown themselves righteous in a world of completely corrupt sinful humans. Gods holiness demands justice and his righteousness requires judgement. But a holy God also shows grace to those who have faith in him...and in the rest of Scripture plenty of grace to those who don't believe in order to bring them to repentence. So, ultimately, this doesn't so much scare children (their imagination is far less terrifying than the images of death and fear we subject them to on TV) as it teachers a weighty and important truth about a sinful humanity and a God who loves them anyway.
3. God doesn't NEED the rainbow as it is a symbol. Just like I don't need my wedding ring to remember I am married, but it serves as a symbol of rememberence. It doesn't discount his omnipotence but is an anthropomorphism showing human-like characteristics.
4. A long lineage does seem irrelevant to us today, but would be very relevant to an ancient culture.
5. The Tower of Babel isn't the advent of new languages, but is the confusing of languages. Up to this point everyone understood the existing languages...now they are unable to interpret.
Again I really appreciate your openness and direct approach to the Scriptures. Www.Jonward.WordPress.com
Re: i really appreciate your blog
Date: 2010-05-28 08:54 pm (UTC)