01/07/2010

Genesis 18-20

Chapter 18 tells of another meeting between Abraham and the LORD. It starts with Abraham seeing three men standing nearby. He encourages Sarah to bake bread, and he has a servant prepare a calf, and he feeds the men. At some point, it becomes obvious that the men either are manifestations of, or represent, the LORD. The LORD tells Abraham that he will return in a year and Sarah will have a son. Sarah, overhearing, laughs at the impossibility of having a son at her age, but denies it when challenged.

As the three are/the LORD is leaving, they/he look(s) toward Sodom, and the LORD informs Abraham of his intent to examine Sodom, discover if it is as bad as he's been led to believe, and destroy it if true. Abraham negotiates and wins the sparing of the city if it contains 10 righteous men.

Chapter 19 chronicles

• the Angels' visit to Sodom
• the attempt by the mob to rape them
• the rescue of Lot and his family from Sodom
• the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
• the turning of Lot's wife into a "pillar of salt"

It ends with the disturbing story of Lot's daughters being impregnated by their father.

In chapter 20, Abraham and Sarah travel to Gerar and deal with the king, Abimelech. As in Egypt, Abraham presents Sarah as his sister. As in Egypt, the king takes Sarah. As in Egypt, God punishes the king for taking another man's wife. And, as in Egypt, Abraham leaves richer than he came.

Thoughts, questions, issues
• To say that there is much in this section that I don't understand would be an understatement. (Although that statement would seem to indicate that there are sections that don't have much that I don't understand, and that's probably not accurate either...)
• Does the first half of chapter 18 contain an early reference to the Trinity? The story alternates between "three men" and "the LORD" as the entity or entities with which Abraham is speaking. Are they Angels? Manifestations of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Is the hospitality due to Abraham's recognition of them as holy messengers, or is that a cultural behavior?
• An omniscient God does not need to examine a city [Sodom, Gomorrah] to know what is going on, how bad the situation is, how many good men there are or anything else. This passage is strange, not only because of the limits implied, but because Abraham is seen not only debating with God, but leading him in argument, essentially teaching him.
• God's vision is not ours, God's motives are not ours, and the story, if true, may be true for good reasons that I'm incapable of, or possibly just lack context for, understanding.
• Why, on the other hand, would someone invent, at a late date, a story that makes the almighty God that they worship look so limited?
• I called the story of Lot's daughters disturbing, and it is. But there's almost nothing in chapter 19 that is not disturbing.
• The depth of depravity indicated by mobs pounding on Lot's door and demanding that the visitors be sent out to be ravished is, obviously, significant. To my modern eyes and sensibilities, it's not obvious that Lot's answer - here, take my virgin daughters - is any less depraved.
• There is some debate about whether the sin of Sodom was the homosexuality or the licentiousness. I have heard it argued, and it was compelling at the time, that that it was the former. I do not remember the details of the argument. It seems as if there was plenty of sin to go around, whichever position you hold.
• There is some similarity between the story of Lot's wife and the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Is this coincidence or cultural cross-contamination?
• The story of Lot's daughters getting him drunk and getting impregnated is disturbing. It also is the kind of story that makes all kinds of sense as a late invention.
  
  

  The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
  

  The books of Moses were recorded at the time of the Exodus and the conquest. If you're going into land that is currently occupied, you are going to be more motivated, as a people, if you believe that the land is yours by divine right, and if the people currently living there are illegitimate descendants of drunken incest.
  
• The story of Abraham and Abimelech in chapter 20 is exactly the same story that we read about Abram and Pharoah back in chapter 12. There are no substantive differences, only trappings - place and persons. The behavior is identical. Is this one story that got told a couple of different ways and ended up recorded as two different stories?
• If they aren't the same story, if it did happen twice, and Abraham, having profited the first time, did it again with another ruler, isn't he, well, a pimp?
• Abraham tells Abimelech that Sarah is his half-sister, claiming that the "she's my sister" was not a lie. This is the first mention of their relationship being incestuous. As I've said before, and will have occasion to again, the story is set before the law was handed down. It is unclear to me when, exactly, humanity would have developed practical strictures against said behavior. It is not clear to me, then, that this is viewed as improper in context, no matter how we look at it now.

Proverbs 7

So this is sex day, I guess. Proverbs 7¹ starts with the now-familiar exhortation to "keep my words and store up my commands within you." And then continues to warn against "the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words." We get the (certainly allegorical) story of "a youth who lacked judgment" and was seduced by a woman of "crafty intent." "She led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk...like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life."

It is not surprising that Genesis would contain stories of a sexual nature, nor that Proverbs would devote significant time to sexual morality. The sexual urge is a fundamental and powerful aspect of human life. And it is easily corruptible. Behavior which is desirable and appropriate in one setting becomes inappropriate or troublesome if the circumstances are slightly different. Which is a compelling reason to devote significant effort to educating and warning about the effects of corrupted behavior.
 


¹ - Proverbs 7 in paragraph form:

My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words.

At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.)

She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: "I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let's drink deep of love till morning; let's enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon."

With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.

01/05/2010

Genesis 12-14

In chapter 12, the story of the Jews really begins, as God calls Abram.

I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

It is not the first time that God has chosen one man over others. He chose Abel's sacrifice over Cain's, and he chose Noah and his family over the rest of humanity. But it is the first time that he chooses one man to establish a line through which he will enlighten and bless humanity, as opposed to just not punishing one. So Abram, with his family and his brother Lot, moves through the Holy Land (which becomes the Holy Land in verse seven: "unto thy seed will I give this land") but continued south to Egypt because there was a famine in the land. Some unseemly, at least to our modern eyes, behavior benefits Abram before he heads north into the promised land once more.

In chapter 13, Abram and Lot, along with all of their possessions, arive back in Bethel. But they've accumulated so much wealth, in the form of cattle and sheep and camels, that the land will not support both of them and their possessions. Abram suggests to Lot that he (Lot) go one way (choose one) and he (Abram) will go the other. Lot chose "the whole plain of the Jordan." Abram moved to Hebron.

Chapter 14 tells the story of Abram's rescue of Lot. The backdrop was the war between the kings of many of the small kingdoms of the ancient near-east. Many of them were rebelling against Chedorlaomer (Kedorlaomer), having been subject to him for 12 years. Two of the kings were the kings of Sodom () and Gomorrah (). Lot was swept up or captured or kidnapped during this war, and carried away to the north. Abram went after them, and with "the 318 trained men born in his household," he defeated Kedorlaomer and brought back Lot and his possessions. The king of Sodom encouraged him to return the people and keep the possessions, but Abram refused to keep anything other than what his men had eaten, claiming that he had made an oath to God.

Odds & ends
• The passage in Egypt is, as so many of the Old Testament passages are, jarring to our modern sensibilities. Which may actually be an understatement. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which a man would fear for his life because of his wife and possessions, but the idea that he would have her pretend to be his sister and then just acquiesce to whatever happens is ... well, it's not one that is comfortable to us.
• If God punished Pharaoh because Abram lied to him, and Pharaoh found out, why did he send Abram off with valuable parting gifts?
• There are two mentions of a story yet to come. When Lot looks over the plain of the Jordan, the narrator informs us that "God had not yet destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." When he pitched his tents near Sodom, we are told that "the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD."
• There are other anachronistic terms indicating a late telling of the story.
  
  • In Gen 14:13, we Abram referred to as "Abram the Hebrew." This is the first appearance of the term "Hebrew"¹ in scripture.
  • In verse 14, we are told that Abram chased them as far as Dan.
  • Melchizedek king of Salem (Jerusalem) is referred to as "a priest of God most high." It is difficult to know exactly what that would mean in the time before the birth of Israel.
• There are some who believe that these stories, indeed all of the stories of the patriarchs, are later inventions, just myth-making. There is significant evidence to the contrary, from the relative frequency of name forms to the price of slaves to the forms of covenants to placing action in cities that were unoccupied and unknown at the time of the alleged invention.
• I am not positive, but I believe that Chedorlaomer is one of the historical figures for whom there is extra-biblical evidence. UPDATE: A google search suggests the existence of Babylonian texts where the name appears, but significantly later than the time of the patriarchs.

Proverbs 5

Four chapters in, we come to what appears to be a specific topic. Chapter 5² deals with avoiding the "strange woman" (KJV) or "adulteress" (NIV). The admonitions are to avoid this woman, to cherish "the wife of your youth," to "drink from your own cistern," etc. In other words, to be faithful.

The question is, faithful to what? On the surface, this is a chapter about sexual morality, about maintaining faithfulness to one's spouse and avoiding the sin of adultery. But I'm not convinced that that's actually the message. Keep in mind that we've already seen wisdom referred to as "she" and been warned about the "strange woman." Also, we know that this sort of imagery will be used by Isaiah and Jeremiah in warning the people to be faithful to God, to avoid the "whore of Babylon." The advice here obviously works on a surface level, as adultery is a sin, faithfulness is a virtue, and the brief physical pleasures that might come from straying cannot compensate for the loss of fidelity. But I think it not only works on a "Israel needs to be faithful to God" level, I suspect that that was the original intent.

I have nothing, by the way, to back that up. That's my perception of the message.


¹ - Some sources indicate "sojourner" or "wanderer" or "one who crosses over," from the root "br" which means "to cross over a boundary." I don't know, and while I know someone who certainly does, if I went to him with every question that arises in this process a) I'd be pestering him constantly and b) it would cease to be mine.

² - Chapter 5 in paragraph form

My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.

Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel, lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house. At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly."

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer — may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife? For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.