Bible Club: Genesis

[madnak]

Oh yeah. Possible funniest part - Jacob wakes up and realizes it was Leah he slept with.

[vhawk01]

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There's definitely some fun stuff. I like how many times the story of "she's not my wife, she's my sister!" is repeated. And it gets deliciously political, and there are some things that are really shocking but just get passed right over.

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I wondered about this too. This seemed to be an amazingly common, yet strikingly successful, ruse. It seemed like the writer suffered from a serious lack of creativity, or else this type of prank was ubiquitous back then.

Its devious, too. Tell them its your sister, watch them move in, BLAMMO! Civil suit. Where is Michael Moore when you need him?

[madnak]

Yes, the clever tricks are really great. They remind me of Loki's exploits, for instance. From our perspective, well... Like how Jacob tricks Laban by showing his strong sheep rods, so they have striped babies. Stroke of genius, Jacob!

[Magic_Man]

I'm a bit behind, but I thought I'd mention my thoughts. Having never read all of Genesis before, it was fun to read all the famous bible stories. Like many other posters, I also thought that the "dirty tricks" were pretty funny. It was particularly messed up when Sarai (Sarah) offered Hagar to her husband, and then they both were jerks to each other afterwards. Reminds me of something out of a sitcom or soap opera.

Some random comments, in no particular order:

-The way the story jumps around in time is pretty confusing to me. For example, when Cain is being punished, he is worried that the other people in the world will kill him. However, we haven't heard about any other people existing yet. Also, in ch. 10 it's talking about people being separated according to their language, but it's not until ch. 11 that we get to the Babel story. It seems like it's not particularly well organized.

-The people in the stories seem incredibly stupid at times. Of course the classic example of this is Adam&Eve. They're in paradise, master of all the animals, and the all-powerful God says "take anything you want except this one little apple." Then a random serpent says "oh he's just kidding, you can eat that," and it's all downhill from there. Similarly, Cain lies outright to the all-knowing God and thinks he's going to get away with it? Come on!

-In ch. 9, the thing about Noah's nakedness went completely over my head. He's naked, his kids see him and cover him up, and then he gets mad about it. What's the deal with that? Is there some moral here?

-I thought the whole "keep my covenant by circumcision" thing was really funny. I think this was mentioned in another thread recently. "Here's my promise to you, but I need some sort of collateral...hmm...OH! I know! Chop off part of your penis." It's completely random and hilarious.

-Another funny thing, in ch.18 when God says Sarah will conceive, and she laughs. Then follows another funny sitcom-like dialog: "You laughed." "Did not!" "Did so!" I think the idea of God arguing with someone like this is funny.

-In the Soddom&Gomorrah story, it's pretty messed up that Lot offers to let his two daughters be raped, and God is ok with that.

-Also, in the S&G story, Abraham is really on to something when he starts asking God "What if you find 50 good men?" Then he starts backing him down, "What about 40? 30? 20? 10?" And then he stops at 10. Come on! The whole point of what he was wondering is whether it is right to sacrifice one innocent person. The way the story reads, it says that it is ok to kill an entire village, even if 9 of them are righteous.

-In the Abraham/Isaac sacrifice story (ch. 22), I thought the dialog was pretty bad. God's been promising Abraham all these wonderful things about his descendants, and then he says "I changed my mind, kill him instead." In S&G, Abraham had no problem questioning God, but now he doesn't even flinch or ask why. He just nods and goes to task. I know that that's the point, but IMO he should have had at least a little dialog w/ God about it. If this were a movie, the script would be awful.

-Just a quick note, since we've been discussing the meaning of "virgin" in some other threads. In 24:16, it says "the girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her". This seems to imply that "virgin" means something different than "having had no relations", although it might not since repetition is common in the bible.

-The whole "she's my sister, not my wife" thing is funny to me. Abr. is worried that they'll kill him because of his beautiful wife, but not worried that they'll kill him for lying and putting them at risk of God's wrath? He seems to portray the people as vicious barbarians, but whenever they find out that he was lying, they are super nice to him.

-The "stealing the blessing" story is pretty ridiculous. Perhaps I know nothing about the customs of the time, but why wouldn't Isaac just say "Oh, that was Jacob, not Esau? In that case, my blessing doesn't apply. What a jerk that guy is." Or, similarly, Jacob is worried about his father recognizing him, and being a deceiver in his father's eyes. But he still thinks the blessing is legitimate even when his father thinks he is Esau? This is completely inconsistent. They make it seem like Isaac really is a God, and that by the simple act of touching someone while stating a blessing, it comes to pass. However, apparently he's not powerful enough in this "blessing power" for it to only work if the blessing is legitimate. The whole story was kind of kooky to me.

-My favorite dirty trick was in ch. 34, when Jacob's sons trick Hamor into circumcision, and then kill everyone while they are in pain. This is so much like a B-rate slapstick comedy, and it's really funny to me for some reason.

-One last comment, I noticed that everyone's prayers are answered quite conveniently. For example, in ch. 24, when Abraham's servant is looking for a wife for Isaac, he says "God, here's how you're going to let me know. I'll say X, and the right woman will say Y." If only God would provide such simple signs of his existence nowadays!



Just a comment on all the above; when I say something is "funny," I mean just that, and don't mean to imply that it is stupid. I actually did find a lot of the Genesis stories entertaining, although some of them (mentioned above) were indeed strange or inconsistent. If anything, I think I've gained a lot of valuable Jeopardy knowledge.

~M^2

[madnak]

Yeah, if you just read it as myths from an ancient culture, it's a lot of fun. Almost all the myths have elements of these absurdities and inconsistencies, and it's just something to smile at if you take it in context. It's a bit disturbing to me that some people take this stuff as literal truth or the word of God, but other than that it's great.

Also regarding the character of God, you'll notice that he's far from the pure omni3 image presented nowadays. That's a common theme through the OT. Not only is he presented as anything but all-powerful and all-knowing, but he acts like a character in a story - he has feelings, can be convinced of things, etc. Moreover there are lots of passages that seem to imply that God isn't the only God.

[IronUnkind]

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Just a comment on all the above; when I say something is "funny," I mean just that, and don't mean to imply that it is stupid.

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I'm glad you mentioned this. As a believer, one can take things seriously, yet still find humor in a lot of this -- selling your birthright for a bowl of soup, for instance.

One of the funniest passages to me is 2 Kings 2:23-24 where some children are making fun of Elisha's baldness. He has the last laugh, however, when he summons (disturbingly, by the power of The LORD) two she-bears from the woods, who proceed to maul 42 of them. They got punk'd!

[MidGe]

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One of the funniest passages to me is 2 Kings 2:23-24 where some children are making fun of Elisha's baldness. He has the last laugh, however, when he summons (disturbingly, by the power of The LORD) two she-bears from the woods, who proceed to maul 42 of them. They got punk'd!

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Yeah, very funny [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Magic_Man]

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Yeah, if you just read it as myths from an ancient culture, it's a lot of fun. Almost all the myths have elements of these absurdities and inconsistencies, and it's just something to smile at if you take it in context. It's a bit disturbing to me that some people take this stuff as literal truth or the word of God, but other than that it's great.

Also regarding the character of God, you'll notice that he's far from the pure omni3 image presented nowadays. That's a common theme through the OT. Not only is he presented as anything but all-powerful and all-knowing, but he acts like a character in a story - he has feelings, can be convinced of things, etc.

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I also got that impression. I like the idea of God walking around and talking to people, or appearing as 3 men, etc. I actually really liked the part where Abraham was convincing God not to destroy S&G. In a sense though, it seemed more like God was using a sort of Socratic method. I don't think he was really "being convinced" by any of the people, just more interested in what they were thinking. It made it seem to me that God was generally fascinated by the minds of humans. Like a father being proud of a profound thought from his children.

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Moreover there are lots of passages that seem to imply that God isn't the only God.

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Strange, I didn't get that idea.

~M^2

[bottomset]

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One of the funniest passages to me is 2 Kings 2:23-24 where some children are making fun of Elisha's baldness. He has the last laugh, however, when he summons (disturbingly, by the power of The LORD) two she-bears from the woods, who proceed to maul 42 of them. They got punk'd!

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Yeah, very funny [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

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its really funny if you think of it as a variant to How Many 5yr Olds?

[IronUnkind]

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Yeah, very funny

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Midge:

The humor is not in the dying kids. It's in Elisha's overreaction and the arbitrariness of the act.

I noticed that you didn't recoil in horror when the OP said that he found the demand for circumcision funny. You could just as well have responded: "There is nothing humorous about mutilated foreskins."