Genisis and Exodus

  I've finally found the trick to reading the Bible while ignoring the all the outside information my subconscious brain-inundated with years and years of preachers, Sunday-school teachers, biblical authors and parental scolding-keeps trying to interject. The Bible, Genesis and Exodus in particular, is an Edward Rutherford book! Read it like an epic historical novel that spans an immense amount of time and focuses on a particular tribe of people-the Jews-and its possible to focus on its literary value instead of its role as the guidebook for one religion or another.

Notes from September 16th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis

http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/odysseus.htm

What is an ephod?

A question posed in class was "What is an ephod?" and I happened to have the answer because I also had the question. An ephod is a breastplate, usually made of linen with the "Twelve stones of Israel" embedded upon it. The twelves stone respresent the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel. My computer won't let me post an image, but if you go to http://www.templemountfaithful.org/Newsletters/2001/5761-9.htm they have an image of one and of the twelve stones.
Random Fact- According to the Talmud, the wearing of the ephod atoned for the sin of idolatry on the part of the Children of Israel.

Acronym

Acronym for the Bible in Seven Words


Create
Excellence,
Love
Wittiness
and
Prepare
Great
Answers
for your teacher

Notes from September 9th

New Testement divisions
  Gospels, letters/epistles

Bible in seven words 1)Creation 2)exodus (revolution) 3)Law 4)Wisdom 5)Prophecy 6)Gospel 7)Apocalypse (Revelation)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/genesis_texts.html

Redactors of the Bible
the Jahwist source ( J )


the Elohist source ( E )
the Deuteronomist ( D )
the Priestly source ( P )
 

Contradictions in Genesis One and Two

Genesis 1:25-27 "And God made the beast of the Earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was Good. and God said, 'let us make man in our image, and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fist of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. So God created man in his own image..."
Genesis 2:18 "And the Lord God said, "'It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him a help meet for him'. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
  So were the animal made first, or man? And if they are two different accounts as indicated by the writing style and different ways of identifying God, and if they contradict each other, does that make them disprove the authenticity of the Bible?
Did you know that if you type in Explanations of Contradictions in the Bible from a Biblical Perspective you only get a few sites where it does exactly that out of the hundreds of hits?
It is noticeable that in the priestly source, it is Aaron's staff that produces water from rocks, splits the sea, and casts plague over Egypt, whereas it is that of Moses in JE.
  P sure is worried about the authority of the clerics. If I recall correctly, he was also the one to push God as a transcendent figure, inaccessible to the common people, who never hesitates to punish wrongdoers. Not exactly the kindest, most caring God.  
  This method of pushing God away seems contrary to what I recall of even the most basic traditions of other ancient religions, who offered a plethora of physical idols and cosmological events as proof of their Gods' existence. Is the Priest's account of such a vengeful god a way to make him more active in the Jewish people's life, since he was never seen in the presence of an object? (Not counting the Ark).

Notes from Thursday Sept 3rd

Old Testament=Hebrew Scriptures
The Apocryphal book of Suzanna(sp?) will become an important text later in the semester
Torah=The Law (First five books of the Bible)
*Lacuna=gap or lack (Where was Cain's wife before she was his wife? If Adam and his sons were the first, so presumably only people, who was it who was going to kill Cain for the Mark on his Forehead?)
Find the difference between Genesis Ch's 1 and 2 and the Discrepancies between the Jehovist and Priestly accounts