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Can be found here. Notes to self:
- *Another* new text? In verses 2 and 3 we have the seven of the clean and two of the unclean inventory for the ark, where in the last chapter it was just two by two. Throughout the book so far there have been a lot of overlaps, repeats, and slightly different versions of things. To me, that suggests these texts gained sacred status very early on - it would have been simple to edit out the bumps, but you don't edit the word of God. (Either that, or the whole thing is intended to mimic the structure of DNA.) Did contemporary cultures also have a sense of the text itself as holy and inviolable? I haven't come across it in the Mesopotamian stuff. Come to think of it I haven't really encountered a concept of sacrilege per se. When does the idea of religious orthodoxy - of correct and mandatory belief - enter human history? Is this an innovation of monotheism?
- On a personal note, I'm charmed by the references to animals as "every thing that creepeth upon the earth". I have a mental image of them all sneaking around on tippy-toes. My cats creepeth under the bed.
- "the windows of heaven were opened" is a beautiful phrase, and a little scary. God is cleaning some house.
- By using drowning as his means of killing, God is refusing access to the "breath of life", mentioned in verse 22.
Now I must creepeth off and do some more writing.
- *Another* new text? In verses 2 and 3 we have the seven of the clean and two of the unclean inventory for the ark, where in the last chapter it was just two by two. Throughout the book so far there have been a lot of overlaps, repeats, and slightly different versions of things. To me, that suggests these texts gained sacred status very early on - it would have been simple to edit out the bumps, but you don't edit the word of God. (Either that, or the whole thing is intended to mimic the structure of DNA.) Did contemporary cultures also have a sense of the text itself as holy and inviolable? I haven't come across it in the Mesopotamian stuff. Come to think of it I haven't really encountered a concept of sacrilege per se. When does the idea of religious orthodoxy - of correct and mandatory belief - enter human history? Is this an innovation of monotheism?
- On a personal note, I'm charmed by the references to animals as "every thing that creepeth upon the earth". I have a mental image of them all sneaking around on tippy-toes. My cats creepeth under the bed.
- "the windows of heaven were opened" is a beautiful phrase, and a little scary. God is cleaning some house.
- By using drowning as his means of killing, God is refusing access to the "breath of life", mentioned in verse 22.
Now I must creepeth off and do some more writing.
