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Genesis 22
Jun. 2nd, 2004 06:08 pmOK! Genesis 22!
- IIRC it's verse 1 which forms the basis of a stunning story in 9/11: Artists Respond.
- If the phrase "saddled his ass" doesn't make you smile, you're a better man than I am.
- I was intrigued to discover that Muslims believe Ishmael and not Isaac was the son picked out for sacrifice, through I have no idea of the significance of the difference.
- Good grief - I've just realised that there's a cruel inversion of this story in the Flash Gordon movie.
- This is a very challenging and very dark story. Abraham ought to have given God an argument again. Would he really have sacrificed Isaac? If so, was he acting out of complete loyalty, or fear? Did he believe that God would stop him? What if the story ended with God berating Abraham for being willing to kill his child? It's the old conundrum: is an act good because God commands it, or does God command it because it's good?
- I read a great little article - I'll try to find it - about the ram, pointing out it's the only one who doesn't get a happy ending! It also dealt with the theological idea that the ram was specially made for this one incident, and so has been hovering about since the creation. (This beautiful statue from Ur was nicknamed the "ram in the thicket", but really has nothing to do with the story.)
In other news: for those of you (like me) puzzling over the identity of Cain and Seth's wives, here's a pretty good solution from biblestudy.org: they married their sisters, who were mentioned in Genesis 5:4. Fair enuff!
The exegete does get a bit knotted up when trying to explain why the laws against incest didn't apply prior to the Flood, while the kosher laws *did* apply, since trayf meat causes mutations. Right. S/he also doesn't attempt an explanation (at least here) of why half-siblings Abram and Sarai could marry.
- IIRC it's verse 1 which forms the basis of a stunning story in 9/11: Artists Respond.
- If the phrase "saddled his ass" doesn't make you smile, you're a better man than I am.
- I was intrigued to discover that Muslims believe Ishmael and not Isaac was the son picked out for sacrifice, through I have no idea of the significance of the difference.
- Good grief - I've just realised that there's a cruel inversion of this story in the Flash Gordon movie.
- This is a very challenging and very dark story. Abraham ought to have given God an argument again. Would he really have sacrificed Isaac? If so, was he acting out of complete loyalty, or fear? Did he believe that God would stop him? What if the story ended with God berating Abraham for being willing to kill his child? It's the old conundrum: is an act good because God commands it, or does God command it because it's good?
- I read a great little article - I'll try to find it - about the ram, pointing out it's the only one who doesn't get a happy ending! It also dealt with the theological idea that the ram was specially made for this one incident, and so has been hovering about since the creation. (This beautiful statue from Ur was nicknamed the "ram in the thicket", but really has nothing to do with the story.)
In other news: for those of you (like me) puzzling over the identity of Cain and Seth's wives, here's a pretty good solution from biblestudy.org: they married their sisters, who were mentioned in Genesis 5:4. Fair enuff!
The exegete does get a bit knotted up when trying to explain why the laws against incest didn't apply prior to the Flood, while the kosher laws *did* apply, since trayf meat causes mutations. Right. S/he also doesn't attempt an explanation (at least here) of why half-siblings Abram and Sarai could marry.
