The Bible’s Old Testament: Genesis part IV: Half Way Through

Posted on February 9, 2013 by virgowriter

Aside from the impressive scope of the story thus far, the time of the Old Testament seems like a bad place to be. Every society encountered seems dangerous, full of blood-thirsty men ready to take your head off.  Everyone is having sex and making all kinds of babies (the uteri of these poor women). God is a type of fertility doctor who opens and closes women’s wombs like they’re Starbucks and he is one flush real estate mogul, who dolls out parcels and regions of land any time he shows up and wants to have a chat with a prominent figure.

In general, the first book of the Bible has the strange feel of a wacky sit-com, where ludicrous events happen; the principal characters antagonize one another; people lie, cheat and steal; are completely jealous of one another; and often scheme.  Then everything is resolved in the end, thanks to a reconciliation that involves some tears and a group hug. Or annihilation.

Why anyone went anywhere during this time is puzzling.  If you’re wife was attractive you had to pretend to be her brother so that people would not kill you and take your wife?  This comes up three times in Genesis (twice with Abraham and once with his son, Isaac). And being a woman, forget it.  Females get tossed around like poker chips: while protecting two angels who have come to Sodom and Gomorrah to verify how depraved life there has become, Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the violent male crowd who gathered, demanding that the two men come out so they can have sex with them. Lot says, take the girls, do whatever you want with them but leave the men be. Thanks, Dad.

Then there is the litany of circumcisions. I can perhaps understand why a person would be convinced by God to get this done. Fine. But I’m trying to imagine how this scenario unfolded: Dinah’s brothers—fueled by vengeance over their sister’s rape—arrive at an area ruled by Hamor.  They are invited to settle among these people and encouraged to intermarry with them.  The brothers feign interest, but insist that if it is to happen—especially them giving up their daughters for marriage—all the men in the area must be circumcised. At a town rally, Hamor and his son pitch the brothers to the townspeople, adding how the town would benefit from the added livestock. In effect, they said ‘Look, we can marry their women and add their herd to ours. But we’re all going to cut off part of our penises.” Response: “okay, sure, that sounds like a good idea.” I imagined a long line of men wrapped around a building like they were in line to get flu shots, each perhaps watching the served men limping away covering their groins. But the Bible offers no such negative feelings about it. When this goes down in 34:24 that sure was an easy sell.

Then there’s the life span people live for. Adam lived to be 930 years old? Perhaps sensing an issue here, God stepped in in chapter six and capped life spans at 120 years.  But then Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood? In the Tower of Babel section, we get a family tree and see people lived to be a couple hundred of years old. Abraham was 175. Jacob, 180. So much for the life span cap. Didn’t people think it strange that Bible characters had crazy life spans? And with their rudimentary medicine and diets, didn’t anyone question this?

And all this lying and deceit.  If you haven’t read the Bible, here’s what you’ve missed: Lot’s daughters, because they appear to have no viable man options, scheme to get their father drunk and sleep with him. Yep, he gets them pregnant. Sarah gets jealous of her maid.  Abraham agrees to sacrifice his son—who doesn’t seem all that fazed by this in the moment—but God stays his hand when he sees the level of dedication Abraham exhibits. Jacob gets tricked into sleeping with the wrong daughter but then marries them both. Jacob gets his father’s blessing over Esau, thanks in part of mom’s scheming. Apparently, except for perhaps Noah, no one tells the truth.  Everyone has an agenda of some kind.

All this makes the plot lines in Dynasty look like good, wholesome family values.

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The Bible’s Old Testament: Genesis part III: The Rainbow and the Dove

Posted on February 7, 2013 by virgowriter

As a reader, I enjoy when I learn the origin of a particular symbol.  Since I write, I like to learn these things so when I  use one, I understand the history of the symbol.  For example, when I was coming out and learning my gay history, I had no idea about the significance behind the pink triangle that represents homosexuality—I figured it was “just a symbol” and gays liked pink. I was 21. Turns out that the pink triangle was used by the Nazis in the concentration camps to mark the rounded-up homosexuals.  The Jews were assigned yellow stars, the gays pink triangles.  A symbol of torture and repression was co-opted for a symbol of strength and solidarity.

The bible is ripe with these types of symbols, and Genesis is no exception.

First, the dove and the olive branch.

As Noah coasts the flood waters, he sent out birds to explore and determine if the flood waters were receding.  He starts with a raven.  When he gets to a dove, later, this bird returns clutching an olive branch, which is evidence to Noah that life—in the form of vegetation—is returning. That is why this bird and the olive branch is a symbol of peace.

And here I thought the dove was used because it seems so gentle and passive. I wonder how many people have used this symbol without knowing its Biblical origin.

Second, the rainbow.

So apparently the rainbow is a symbol that God created in order to let Noah know that he would keep his promise to him to never flood the planet again.  When he sees a rainbow, he should rejoice, for the moisture in the air is not an early indicator of terrible rain to come.

My first reaction to this was an eye roll: really, God created rainbows? Clearly we know now that rainbows are created through refraction.  Second, since the rainbow flag was adopted as a symbol of the gay community, one that expresses the diversity within our ranks, I assume that this is one of the reasons we have earned the ire of Bible devotees: we stole one of their beloved symbols from Genesis.

And here I thought we’d lifted it from the Grateful Dead.

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The Bible’s Old Testament: Genesis part II: Slight embellishment?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by virgowriter

So Genesis begins with the creation of the galaxy in general and our world specifically.  And on the seventh day, God rested. Given all that he accomplished, I can understand why. Though if you believe the Bible (meaning you use the Bible to support decisions and beliefs), how does this first part stand up?

Thousands of years ago, it might make sense that when someone inquired about light and darkness and how they came to be, someone offered: God did it.  Okay, but now we know that we get our light from the sun and our portion of the planet goes black when the Earth rotates us away from the sun: darkness. Examining details like this should realistically cause at least one Bible enthusiast to say, okay, we found a hole.  And if one thing is inaccurate, can’t there be others?

Let’s take the story of Noah and his 450 ft-long ark. Based on the first set of God’s directions, Noah filled it with pairs of every animal known to man (including birds) and his wife and three sons.  In the alternate version of directions, Noah had seven of each animal, a mix of male and female. In either version, that’s some ship. How a single person builds this thing, complete with multiple levels, etc., is beyond me. I appreciate the inspiring angle: one man, based on belief, accomplishes something seemingly impossible.  There is worth in such a story. This is how people get inspired. But the story should be plausible, yes?

However, even suggesting that happened (building of the ship), let’s look at the great flood— God flooded the whole world with 40 days and 40 nights of rain, creating flood waters that lasted 150 days.

Crazy rains and floods do occur, but maybe the “world” was an exaggeration. Perhaps their world was small—how much of it could they really have known about? Is it possible that the world to Noah was only the world he could see? Perhaps there was a great flood that covered a great area, but the whole planet? So is this a case of an event being recorded as it happened or one that was embellished by the person who wrote it?

And if people say, well, that is an exaggeration, how does that not apply to ALL the Bible?  Where does one draw the line? Isn’t it possible that a volcano destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (as the text states) due to a natural chain of events setting off the eruption and not because God made it so?

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