The First Book of Moses: Genesis, Chapters 1-5

A comment irrelevant to this blog entry, but that has something to do with a previous one. I was thinking about the tale of that one guy in a myth whose name I can't remember completely, but that goes something like Erinischent. Anyone, he is cursed be starvation, and from then one he eats everything and eventually destroys himself and his fortune. Maybe his hunger was a metaphor for greed. Whoever wrote the myth might have been thinking of someone so greedy he always wants more, even if he's already had a lot, and how in the end he ditches his family (or at least daughter), than loses his fortune, and eventually himself, by his cupidity...Just a random thought.

Anywho, moving on...

I wasn't sure how much we were supposed to do, and what 1-5 meant, so I gesstimated it meant Chapters 1-5.

These chapters basically talk about how God created Earth, the story of Adam & Eve, and the first humans.

I feel a bit uncomfortable examining and giving my opinion on the Bible, since it's been around for thousands of years, and the version we're reading was written by some of the most brilliant scholars in Jacobean England, and I'm just a fourteen-year-old girl who's never done anything particularly impressive, so I feel sort of unworthy. But I'll try. Anything for a good grade.

I think I agree with Nicolson when he talked about how rich and resonant the King James Bible is. I've just read five pages of it, of course, but it's off to an auspicious start. He also mentioned that many words were in italics, and no one knows why, which is true too. At first I thought that it was to emphasis the text, but then it crept up in really strange places, such as in "that"s or "art"s or "said"s.

I don't understand why God tried to protect Adam and Eve from knowledge. Is he just like a parent trying to keep his children innocent? I guess that's why they would call him Father. But at the same time, a parent is supposed to let go of their children at some point, not become all offended because they realized that being naked wasn't good. And whatever happened to turning the other cheek?

They tell us the story of Cain, who murdered his own brother out of jealousy, and whom God forgave and protected when Cain repented. This is a good example of God's all-forgiving...ness.

Then the whole genealogy of Adam and Eve is given, and what I thought was really strange was how long they lived, an average of nine hundred years. I guess that was to allow all the men to have many children.

The last person born was Noah, and I think I can see where this is going. All the other children are going to start squabbling amongst themselves, and the whole Noah's Ark will happen.

That reminded me of the movie "Evan Almighty." It was pretty funny, but "Bruce Almighty" was funnier.