Jacob and Esau, When Twins Go Bad
Our story continues. Isaac and Rebekah are married, but unfortunately she is sterile. This seems to happen a lot in the Bible, first Sarah, now Rebekah. Jacob, being his father’s son, asks God to make her fertile. His prayer is granted, and Rebekah becomes pregnant. To see the rough spots here, let’s view this from the traditional born-again perspective. In this POV nothing happens without God’s will, so it follows that Yahweh wanted her sterile. Until God is begged, and what else is a prayer but begging a superior being for favors, Rebekah remains infertile. Now why would he do this? The only conclusion I can arrive at is that this forces us to need…
Rebekah and Isaac, Love Bought and Paid For.
In spite of my mocking post title above, this is the most humane story of the Bible so far. There is no genocide, no enslavement of grandsons, no selfish God with unreasonable demands. There is a marriage arrangement with the bride-to-be’s parents, but there’s also the first biblical instance where there is a small amount of respect for a woman’s desires. The story of Rebekah and Isaac, at least in the beginning, is a gentler story. Later it dissolves into the incomprehensible intrigue seemingly so necessary to the Bible, but that will be for another post. Our story starts with the nearly sacrificed Isaac (You have to wonder if he was a bit bitter about…
Sacrifice, God’s Demand for Obedience and Pain
The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio “And the Lord God said all mankind will suffer greatly for me, and suffer they did. Greatly!” The Blessed Atheist’s brief summary of the entire Old Testament. Before we leave Abraham for the last time, we need to take a hard look at God’s test, the infamous demand for human sacrifice. Of all the the stories in the bible, this is the one which bothers me the most. Even decades ago, as a born again teen, this was the story that always pulled against my grain. The horror of a god taking his most loyal worshipper and testing him in such a manner upset me even when I was burdened…
Circumcision… Why, God? Why?
Even though, I am circumcised and on the advice of our pediatrician, our son has also been snipped, I just don’t understand the entirety of circumcision. Although, Medical opinion still seems validate the practice, it still puzzles me. My questions is this: who actually figured this out 4000 years ago? Were penile infections so rampant — I mean puss-tipped penises dropping off like flies in the uncircumcised — that it became absolutely necessary? Did some idea of sacred purity get involved? And what in the hell was going through that first man’s mind when he reached down with two sharp rocks and nipped the foreskin off. Even more important what was going through his victim/patients…
The End of Sodom, A Heartwarming Tale Where a Righteous Man Tries to Rescue Angels by Having a Mob Rape His Daughters.
Please read Sodom and Gomorrah, Countdown to a Massacre first. It is integral to understanding this post. If you have already read it then let us continue. The two angels who visited Abraham finally make it to Sodom. At the city gate they meet Lot, Abraham’s favorite nephew. Lot, nearly as sycophantic as Abraham, knows who they are and bows very low, face to the ground. He begs them to come and stay at his house for the evening. They refuse wanting to sleep in the town square, but Lot is quite persistent, so finally, they consent to be his guests. Just before turning in for the night, the entire town mobs Lot’s door. It seems that…
Sodom and Gomorrah, Countdown To A Massacre
In our story today, Abraham tries to save Sodom from the wrath of God. He fails, but he does try. His bargaining with God over the fate of a city he doesn’t live in, is his personal moral high point. This one act easily outshines his earlier life. It is,in fact,the sole high point of this entire myth, for there is little other mercy, care or love. It’s all downhill, baby. The annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah is another of those biblical passages so difficult to take with modern moral sensibilities. With this atrocity, God continues his fall from whatever grace man created him with. His reputation, severely tarnished by the genocide of the flood, dropped yet…
Abraham and Sarah, Love Biblical Style.
Before we hit the Story of Abraham and Sarah, we come to what is so far my favorite line of the Bible. It’s Genesis 10, 8-9 ”Cush became the father of Nimrod, who was the first potentate on earth. He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the Lord; hence the saying, “Like Nimrod,a mighty hunter by the grace of the Lord.”” Damn that elegant tongue, isn’t it delightful? It’s poetry man! Poetry! Next up, Abraham , the great patriarch of three of the world’s largest religions, and who most of humanity places at the very root of their theology. He is the most interesting person the Bible has yet offered, likely because he…
The Tower Of Babel And The Immaturity Of God
Some time after the flood, when the earth had been repopulated by the descendants of Noah, a curious thing happened. God saw some people making life better for themselves, creating beauty, building wonders, that sort of thing. This upset God greatly. Why you ask? Well, in truth, that’s a bit vague. It smacks of contempt and jealousy of humanity, for these people of Babel were building something great, a tall tower in a great city so they would not be scattered across the world. They wanted to remain united, and really, who doesn’t. But if Yahweh wants you scattered, scattered you will be. On a continually repeating theme, the big felony here seems to be…
Why I Do What I Do!
I understand that what I write may confuse some people and hurt others so I feel a restating of why I am doing this Bible study may be in order. As an atheist, complete and utter, I am willing to argue my points to anyone willing to argue theirs. This is how ideas are spread. This is how truth moves forward. I believe the Bible was one of humanity’s early attempts to explain the world around them. Not understanding the nature of their world or their origin, humankind has always turned to myth, and some of these are wonderful with much beauty, but many have beauty mixed with cruelty, while others are simply squalid and…
Damn! Noah’s Drunk And Naked Again!
As a last look, before we leave Noah in the dusty pages of Genesis, let’s have an in-depth look at his drinking problem and how his grandson suffered for it. Personally, I find this chapter a fascinating study of the man who God considered righteous enough not to murder in the great genocide, the best man in the world, but as we shall see, God’s standards are a bit strange. A mere eight people left the ark after the flood receded. Eight! They were the only living humans on Earth, all the rest having been murdered by the Great Lord Genocide. The leader of the survivors of Jehovah’s wrath was Noah, because he, by God’s…
