Jonah The Reluctant Prophet

What fascinates me about the book of Jonah is how utterly AMAZING the whole story is.  God literally asks Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and speak out against it, condemning them for their wickedness.  Of course Jonah does what any sane person would do and flees instead.  What I find interesting about this is that if God was really all powerful wouldn't the people God is testing be more inclined to do what they say?  Something brings doubt into their hearts.
After Jonah flees God causes a storm and because Jonah is, in my mind, good he tells the sailors to throw him in the sea.
"He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."" (Jonah 1:12)  And eventually they do.  In reading this story I couldn't help but think on where it came from and it occurred to me that it's very possible this could have been a story told amongst sailors to explain unrest in the ocean or stormy seas.
Jonah ends up being swallowed by a large fish that the Lord sends.  It says he was "in the belly of the fish three days and three nights".  This forces Jonah to finally turn to God.  When I read this I couldn't help but think about Pinocchio and it occurred to me that there definitely was a comparison between the two.
The ending of the story when looked at with Literary Criticism again draws back on the Torah.  God puts a bush over Jonah to shade him then appoints a worm to attack it.  This seems as if it could be a full circle to the burning bush Moses sees.  When Jonah gets angry about the bush we learn the lesson of this story.  "But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."  Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night."" (Jonah 4:9 - 10)

David and Jonathon

The story between David and Jonathon was a wonderful gem for me to find in the Bible. It's located in Samuel 1 and Samuel 2. What I find interesting about this story is the homosexual undertones that it has to it. It says that "David loved Jonathon more than any other woman". And when Jonathon warns David of his father and tells David he must leave it states that they kiss and they both wept, though "David wept the more". What I find interesting is that I have never heard anything about this story prior to reading it which leads me to believe it is the church that does not teach this. However, the church does preach Leviticus "A man shall not lay with a man as he would a woman it is an abomination". Sounds to me like people only take from the Bible what THEY feel is right.

Judges: 13 - 16 Samson and Delilah

This section begins with: "The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." (Judges 13:1)

Throughout these histories of the Old Testament the Israelites are constantly doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord. I find it so interesting that they are constantly being punished and constantly screwing up; not living by the law. You'd think after a while they'd understand, however a lot of these punishments that are written as the Lord's doing were historic events that the people probably blamed on the Lord to explain them.

The next part of the story is Manoah's wife telling him that an angel of God told her "You shall conceive and bear a son" and informed her not to drink or eat anything unclean. Her child shall be a nazirite to God. Manoah offers a grain offering in front of the angel and Manoah and his wife watch as the angel ascends in the flame. This mirrors the burning bush that Moses saw in the book of Exodus. They named their son Samson.

Samson is this extremely strong character who in the vineyards of Timnah tore a lion apart barehanded. This reminds me of the image found on the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck in the Major Arcana as the Strength card.

Samson eventually falls in love with Delilah; a woman in the valley of Sorek. The lords of the Philistines force her to tell them what makes Samson weak. She asks Samson repeatedly what makes him weak and he tells her repeatedly lies. What's interesting is that with each lie she believes it and tells the Philistines but then warns Samson when they are upon them. I find this very conflicting. Finally Samson tells Delilah that if his head were to be shaven he'd be able to be taken.

"She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him." (Judges 16:19)

This passage is touching and disturbing. There is little known about Delilah's intentions or why Samson so freely gives up the information. The Philistines do capture him and but he eventually destroys them and himself by knocking down two pillars of their house.

Joshua: 1 - 8

The character of Joshua takes over after Moses' death. The covenant between God and Moses passes on to Joshua. This book deals with Joshua leading the people to conquer lands.

The first town they go to is Jericho where a prostitute named Rahab hides the two spies of Joshua and she is therefore protected when they destroy the town. The wording they use I find kind of creepy:

"The men said to her, 'our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.'" (Josh. 2:14)

What struck me as so emotional and tragic about this story is the way Rahab is forced to watch her home and friends and community burn while she survives left with the guilt that possibly she could have saved them. It also seemed incredibly cruel to me that God would force Rahab to go through this and the confusion of being "rewarded" with her life. If looked at from a Feminist critique this character like much of the female characters in the Bible are forced to reap the consequences of male actions. She is a hero to her family but ultimately a villain to her whole town. It's not fair.

Jericho was surrounded by walls. Again the number seven comes up here as Joshua's men, seven priests with seven trumpets on the seventh day will march around the city seven times while they blow the trumpets. After doing this the walls of Jericho fall down.

Leviticus 18 - 21

This particular passage deals with the sexual abominations. A lot of these particular laws make up the majority of moral values that are followed by many Christians. There are statements against incest, against fornication outside of marriage, bestiality, and homosexuality. The term "uncover nakedness" is used repeatedly as synonymous with "uncover genitals".

The difficult thing about this is that many of the moral laws here seem absolutely understandable. For example:

"You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born at home or born abroad. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness." (Lev. 18:9- 11)

However the simple statement of,

"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22)

has repeatedly been used to oppress the homosexual community. It's placement right next to,

"You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion." (Lev. 18:23)

has caused many radicals to compare homosexuality to bestiality; an incredibly offensive comparison. This one small passage has been used repeatedly to alienate the LGBTQIA community from Christianity.

It's this kind of thinking that has led extremists like Fred Phelps to attack homosexuals and anyone who does not "Fear" God.

Exodus: Beginnings of Moses

Exodus is a book that needs to constantly be looked at with Source criticism and Socio- Historical criticism because during this time there were many famines and people were forced to migrate in and out of Egypt. It is a book of constant movement.

Before Moses was born the King of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives to kill the boys born to Hebrew women and to let the girls live. The reason given for this is population control.

One line that stood out to me has to do with Moses and his sister. It is after the Levite woman he was born to places him in a basket-like creation and sets it on the banks of the river.

"His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him." (Ex:2.4)

Something about this line strikes up a strong emotion in me.

Pharaoh's daughter ends up taking the child under her wing.

"When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, 'because,' she said, 'I drew him out of the water." (Ex:2.10)

This is another reference to water being something holy. If we compare this to the information given at the beginning of genesis the similarities of water being connected to creation are indisputable. When God created the earth it was a watery mass, according to genesis. Baby Moses is pulled out of the water and given his name for that very reason.

"Moses, an Egyptian name meaning "give birth" and often part of Egyption names joined with the name of a god, is given a Hebrew etymology("he who draws out") in anticipation of Moses' role in drawing his people through the sea." (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 4th ed.)

The years Moses would have come of age are skipped over.

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he saw to Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, 'Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?' He answered, 'Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and thought, 'Surely the thing is known.' When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses." (Ed:2.11 - 15)

There is so much to look at in this passage. The first is that Moses kills the Egyptian beating the Hebrew slave. Since Moses sees no one before committing the act it can be inferred that perhaps the Hebrew slave is the one who spoke of it. Moses is forced to flee as the Pharaoh seeks to kill him. Was Moses' act just? Is Moses actually against the kind of labor his people are forced to endure or is he just against his own people being those who are forced into that kind of labor? I think it's the ladder.

Everything written in the Torah has to be seen through the eyes of people struggling to survive.

"But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughts to water their father's flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock." (Ex:2.15 - 18)

In this passage we see the connection again to water as well as the number seven. Out of these seven daughters Moses finds a wife named Zipporah.

"The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." (Ex:2.23 - 24)

Um... did God forget???

Genesis: Joseph

I have a hard time reading this without thinking about the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

I played the show a couple years ago and it felt like a show consisting of jingles. Needless to say, I spent many nights not sleeping because of the music.

I'm not a fan.

For this reason I'm not even going to touch on this story. It's great, don't get me wrong. But the musical has tainted it for me.

I will say this is one of the only stories in Genesis that feels like a full story. Beginning, middle, and end. There is a lot to take from this text.

ENJOY DONNY OSMOND!!! (I apologize for any nightmares which may follow)

Genesis: Sodom and Gomorrah/ Lot's Wife

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah has often been used by religious right wing individuals to condemn progressive and liberal ideas. The story has been used in reference to homosexuality, however nowhere in this story is homosexuality even mentioned. Sodom is just described as a city filled with sin.

The type of destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah that God causes can also be related to the Tower of Babel. These are two instances where God shows how powerful he is.

Prior to the destruction Abraham begs God to spare the city if he finds ten righteous men:

"'Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.' He answered, 'For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.'" (Gen:18.32)

Unfortunately ten righteous men are not found. God allows Lot and his family to escape before the destruction. This is slightly disturbing since moments earlier Lot had offered up his two virgin daughters.

LOT'S WIFE

"Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt." (Gen:19.24 - 26)

This is one of my favorite stories I know from the Bible. As far as Literary Criticism goes it is a beautiful metaphor about letting go. After Lot's wife has looked back and turned into a pillar of salt she remains that way forever. (There is a stone they believe to be her to this day) It is interesting that there is only one line devoted to this tragic moment.

It's also interesting to look at salt and it's connection with water. The ocean is filled with salt and when people cry their tears are salty. Perhaps the entire line is a metaphor and she did not physically turn to a pillar of salt but instead did so emotionally.

How could you not look back at the home that God was destroying?

This fascination with "looking back" has been explored in other ancient stories as well. Most famous is "Orpheus and Eurydice". Upon leading his lover Eurydice out of the underworld, Orpheus looks back to see if she is still there - the one thing the lord of the underworld told him not to do - and she gets sucked back into the underworld.

Here is a link to that story:

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/eurydice/eurydicemyth.html

ONE MORE THING...

Something that struck me as disturbing and perhaps misrepresented were the verses where Lot's daughters get him "drunk" and have sex with him.

"'Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.'" (Gen:19.31 - 33)

And that's exactly what they did.

1) There is a town just down the way called Zoar according to earlier passages where these two could choose to procreate.

2) Isn't "uncovering your father's sex" a sin?

3) I think it's important to look at the likelihood of this being written down by a woman. At this time most stories were told orally and were later written down. Therefore, it is very possible that the story had changed in some ways. Just a thought: Perhaps the girls didn't get their father drunk. Isn't it possible that he got drunk and raped them? Then, after, told the story differently? I'm not saying their is a right or wrong answer, but I think it's important to look at everything with a grain of salt. Pardon my pun. : )

I've attached a video from one of my favorite musicals. It's written by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori. The show is called Caroline, or Change and it centers around a single mother during the time of JFK's assassination, struggling to make ends meet because of her place as a black woman as well as her emotional prison due to her torn relationship with her ex husband. The show references the story of Lot's Wife numerous time and this song is given that very title:

Genesis: The Tower of Babel

"Then they" [they referring to the families of Noah's sons] "said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, "Look they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city." (Gen:11.4-9)

If we look at this through the lens of Socio-historic criticism it's important to note that the ancient Sumerians used to build towers of worship known as ziggurats. It's very possible that the passage above was referencing those places of worship which were truly massive. Below is an example of a ziggurat:

Another association with the tower of babel that occurs to me is in Tarot. The sixteenth card in the Major Arcana is called THE TOWER. The meaning of this card is "Breakdown of the old to herald the new... Learn to adapt and adjust quickly... External disruption...Chaos." (Bartlett)

This meaning does in some ways coincide with the story in the Bible. The "confusion of language" is definitely chaotic and requires rebuilding of some kind.

I've added a song from another Stephen Schwartz musical called Godspell. The song is called "Tower of Babble" performed by the 2000 Off Broadway Cast. It opens the show. It takes the idea of The Tower of Babel, and adds a fun little twist:

Genesis: Noah and the Flood

Noah After the Flood by Francesco Bassano

Before Noah and the flood is a list of the descendants of Adam. These descendants live for hundreds of years. Here is how long the descendants of Adam, and Adam himself, lived.

Adam: 930

Seth: 912

Enosh: 905

Kenan: 910

Mahalalel: 895

Jared: 962

Enoch:365

Methuselah: 969

Lamech: 777

"When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty two years, he became the father of a son; he named him Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands." (Gen:5.28-31)

Seven is a recurring number throughout all of Genesis and The Bible. It is interesting that Noah's father lived to be 777 years old.

"When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days- and also afterward- when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown." (Gen:6.1-4)

The statement that people will live no more than one hundred and twenty years seems a pretty close estimate to the maximum age of human beings. There have been a couple cases of people living past 120 years but those are rare and disputable.

"...the Nephilim [are], a race of giants said to exist both prior to and after those times." (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 4th ed.)

The Nephilim are something that I've never really heard talked about before. Again this is another question without an answer. Are Nephilim part of a human race? Is it possible that the wickedness of the Nephilim is what made God send a flood?

The reason for the flood to come is stated twice:

1) "The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." (Gen:6.5-6)

2) "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth." (Gen:6.11-13)

The repetition could be looked at with source criticism. Or if it were looked at in a literary sense, perhaps the first verse is God speaking to himself then, after describing Noah, it is him repeating his reasoning to Noah.

Again, the number 7 comes up in Gen:8 as Noah waits 7 days to send the dove out from the ark and when the dove comes back he waits another 7 days.

Genesis: Cain and Abel

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

CAIN AND ABEL
The story of Cain and Abel is one that has fascinated me since reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden. It was later adapted into a film starring James Dean.

The story of Cain and Abel begins with Cain bringing an offering of fruit from the ground to God and Abel bringing a sheep. God gives regard to Abel but does not give regard to Cain, which makes Cain angry. In my mind it's a classic story of sibling rivalry resulting from a symbolic father figure whom both Cain and Abel are trying to please.

"Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" And the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand." (Gen:4.8-11)

If you look at the information given so far not one person has ever died before. This brings in to question whether or not Cain knew that he could even kill Abel.

""When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth and anyone who meets me may kill me." Then the Lord said to him, "Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance." And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." (Gen:12-16)

Even as God curses Cain he then places a mark on him so that no one who comes upon him will kill him.

"'Cain', derives from a Hebrew word for create, "qanah"... The name 'Abel' is the same word translated as 'vanity' (or 'emptiness') in the book of Ecclesiastes." (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 4th ed.)

Cain and Abel might be one of the most powerful stories in Genesis. If looked at with literary criticism, these first two stories might be instruction manuals to parents.

1) Adam and Eve - the story of children coming of age, learning about their "nakedness"

2) Cain and Abel - a story of sibling rivalry. Could very well be a warning not to favor one child over another.

Here is another excerpt from Children of Eden by Stephen Schwartz. This is an interesting take on the story of Cain and Abel.

Genesis: In The Beginning/ Adam and Eve

In reading Genesis I was struck by how rich it was in story and yet how scarce it was in explanation. If you look at it from a standpoint of Literary Criticism and see God as the protagonist it is the story of, in my eyes, a God who learns that our creations are not always in our control.

"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." (Gen:1.2)

Something that I find fascinating about this is that the logic amongst most of the Christians I know is that God is the creator of ALL things. However, it clearly says here that when God created the earth there was water.

I also find this passage beautiful. Water is something that every living thing needs to survive, it is absolutely essential to our existence and it is something we drink every day (at least for those of us who are fortunate) often without taking the time to notice it's importance. Babies are born with water making up nearly 78% of them.

Fun fact: "Earth is a feminine noun in Hebrew." (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 4th ed.)

- This fact I feel is important to note since the role of women in The Bible is controversial.

"Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." (Gen:1.26)

This passage suggests, from God's own words, that God is amongst others and that God is going to make humankind in their image.

Christian's believe that there is only one supreme God. I asked many people what their opinion was on this passage and most of them responded with "God is talking about the holy trinity". However, it doesn't say anything about the "Holy Trinity" anywhere in Genesis. And since The Bible means "a collection of books", and since each book comes from a variety of sources we have to look at them, in my mind, as individual texts.

If you look at it from a stance of literary criticism, you have to wonder who is God speaking to all this time? Whenever God speaks, who is the immediate audience?

Another inconsistency which could be blamed on the various sources used to create Genesis is that there are two creation stories.

EVE AND THE SERPENT

This is probably my favorite part of Genesis. Before reading this verse it's important to note that "Snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil." (New Oxford Annotated Bible, 4th ed.)

"The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'" (Gen:2.15-17)

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die'." But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves." (Gen:3.1 - 7)

1) It is often said that the serpent is Satan but it does not say that anywhere in Genesis.

2) It is often said that the serpent deceived Eve but if we look at the first verse it is God who deceived Adam and it is the serpent who told the truth. God said they would die and the serpent told them that you will not die and God knows you will not die.

3) God brings Adam to the garden of eden to "till it and keep it" then tells him he cannot eat from the tree of "knowledge". This might be a stretch but it reminded me of slavery. Americans brought people to America, enslaved them, and denied them education. Just an association I made, nothing more.

I see this as a story of two children growing up, losing their innocence, and being forced to leave "the nest" or "the garden". The parent, "God", lied to them in order to protect them. But in the end God could not protect them from the inevitable; knowledge.

"But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate."" (Gen:3.9- 13)

This passage is humorous to me because no one takes responsibility for their actions. God does not address the fact that he lied to Adam and Eve. Adam blames Eve who blames the serpent and because God has power it is the three of them who get punished.

Below is a link to a song that dramatizes Eve eating the fruit. It's from Children of Eden the musical by Stephen Schwartz: